doyen

See also: Doyen

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French doyen, from Late Latin decānus, from Latin decem. Compare the doublet dean.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔɪ.ən/, /dɔɪˈɛn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (to approximate the French pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dwɑˈjæ̃/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪən, -ɛn

Noun

doyen (plural doyens)

1. (obsolete) A commander in charge of ten men.
2. The senior, or eldest male member of a group.
   • 1997, Thomas Swan, The Cezanne Chase, page 171:

     At every turn, Collyers's aggressive new management in London was out-maneuvering and out promoting the double doyens of the rarefied art auction world. Old-timers at Collyers referred to Christie's and Sotheby's as “the Cow and the Sow,” lumping them together in frequent attitudes of disdain, in an attempt to make up for decades of being the brunt of bad jokes.

   • 2000, Steve Fuller, Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times, page 383:

     Conant's sense of science's world-historic mission did not especially endear him to Harvard's doyens, most of whom still operated with a liberal arts college model of the university in which the humanities reigned supreme and even the natural sciences were treated more as teaching than research subjects.

   • 2007, Vanina Bouté, “Political Hierarchical Processes among Some Highlanders of Laos”, in François Robinne, Mandy Sadan, editors, Social Dynamics in the Highlands of Southeast Asia, page 189:

     On the domain level, two doyens, called “Lords of the Land” were entitled to some further specific prerogatives, including the right to lead rituals on behalf of all the villages of the domain (i.e. the domain of the clan of the doyen and, therefore, the clan considered the founder of the oldest village).

   • 2020, Francis Annan, ~20:30 from the start, in Escape from Pretoria, Daniel Radcliffe (actor):

     Every prison has its doyen, and for us politicals it was Denis Goldberg.

3. (colloquial) A leading light, or exemplar of a particular practice or movement.
   • 1991, Arif Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, page 129:

     Unlike the latter, however, Shifu's seriousness allowed no compromise; his criticism of Zhang ji even brought him into conflict with Wu Zhihui, one of the doyens of anarchism in China.

   • 2008 July 3, Amanda Schaffer, “The Sex Difference Evangelists”, part 3: “Mars, Venus, Babies, and Hormones”, in Slate,

     In an interview, even Simon Baron-Cohen, another doyen of sex-difference claims, offered up some caution.

   • 2011, Maitrii Aung-Thwin, The Return of the Galon King: History, Law, and Rebellion in Colonial Burma, page 199:

     For these doyens of the field, the Burmese conceptual landscape was a sophisticated and complex array of beliefs, exhibiting the ability of communities to adapt, appropriate, and reshape external influences throughout history.

Related terms

• dean (doublet)
• doyenne

Translations

(obsolete) a commander

• Russian: дуайе́н (ru) m (duajén)

the senior member

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 老資格／老资格 (zh) (lǎozīgé), 元老 (zh) (yuánlǎo)

• Esperanto: plejaĝulo (eo), pliaĝulo, grandaĝulo, profundaĝulo
• French: doyen (fr) m
• German: Altmeister (de) m
• Italian: decano (it) m
• Japanese: 元老 (ja) (げんろう, genrō), 長老 (ja) (ちょうろう, chōrō)
• Persian: سرکرده (fa) (sarkarde)
• Russian: старе́йшина (ru) m (staréjšina), старшина́ (ru) m (staršiná)
• Swedish: doyen (sv) c, ålderspresident (sv), äldst till tjänsteåren
• Venetan: degan m

(colloquial) a leading light

• German: Lichtgestalt (de) f, Wortführer (de) m
• Russian: све́точ (ru) m (svétoč)

Anagrams

• Doney, Doyne, doney, noyed

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French deien, from Late Latin decānus, from Latin decem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dwa.jɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

doyen m (plural doyens, feminine doyenne)

1. (religion, education) dean
2. doyen (senior member)

Related terms

• décanal
• décanat
• dix

 

Further reading

• “doyen”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch *thōien, from Proto-West Germanic *þauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *þawjaną.

Verb

dôyen

1. to thaw, to melt

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: dooien
• Afrikaans: dooi

Etymology 2

Verb

dôyen

1. Alternative form of douwen

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “doyen”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “doyen (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “doyen (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French doyen. First attested in 1780.

Noun

doyen c

1. A doyen or dean; the senior, or eldest member of a group.
   • 2024 November 22, Sara Schwartz Wiman, “Efter kritikstormen: Färre ambassadörer välkomna på Nobelfesten [After the wave of criticism: Fewer ambassadors invited to the Nobel banquet]”, in SVT Nyheter:

     I år är det endast ambassadörer från pristagarnas länder, Norges ambassadör samt den diplomatiska kårens doyen (den ambassadör som varit längst i Sverige) som får komma, vilket Alkompis var först att rapportera om.

     This year, only ambassadors from the laureates' countries, Norway's ambassador, and the dean of the diplomatic corps (the ambassador who has served the longest in Sweden) are invited, as first reported by Alkompis.

Synonyms

• ålderspresident
• äldst till tjänsteåren

References

• doyen in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)