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Precedence

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Historical Etiquette

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the omnipresence of rank in etiquette rules. Precedence is the phenomenon by which social hierarchy imposes a strict order in which to do certain things. It affects the timing of certain actions, whereby the superior in rank has the right to do something first, and there is a spatial precedence, whereby the superior is entitled to the place of honour. Precedence is first illustrated with a linguistic example, involving an offer of food, to illustrate how rank alone determines different wordings of the offer. Next, I argue for the quasi-mandatory nature of the subordinate-superior dynamic as in Britain and France precedence is enshrined in law. The remainder of the chapter proposes an inventory of non-verbal precedency, except for the last section, which is about the use of honorific address in letter-writing and conversation, but also about letter layout.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To translate the terms of address, I used the titles prescribed in the chapter The Colloquial Application of Titles and Precedency in Manners and Tone of Good Society ([1880]2/[1879]: 54) regarding the address of French nobility. However, I translated cher comte and baron literally because Talleyrand is moving away from conventional address. See also Sect. 5.7.

  2. 2.

    Gallica.fr does not offer a publication date. Mme Lambert is the pseudonym of Jules Rostaing, born in 1824. Other publications by this prolific author date back to the 3rd quarter of the nineteenth century. He often mentions the Republic in this source, so the terminus ab quo for the publication is 1870, the start of the Third Republic.

  3. 3.

    Most probably a pseudonym.

  4. 4.

    See https://www.lynn-byrne.com/posts/design-dictionary-fauteuil-bergere, accessed 16.10.2021.

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  1. Istituto di studi italiani, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Annick Paternoster

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Paternoster, A. (2022). Precedence. In: Historical Etiquette. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07578-0_7

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