lettre de cachetとは 意味・読み方・使い方

名詞

lettre de cachet (複数形 lettres de cachet)

1. (now historical) A warrant issued by the monarch in ancien régime France, especially one which imprisons someone without trial.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 77, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:

     I lost my temper, and spoke so irreverently of the Grand Monarque, that the next morning I was sent to the Bastile, by virtue of a Lettre de Cachet.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December​, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I または II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], OCLC 2057953:

     “Bon Dieu!” thought the old negotiator, “the boy has actually talked the woman round, and she’d get him a wife as she would a toy if Master cried for it. Why are there no such things as lettres-de-cachet—and a Bastille for young fellows of family?”