éminence grise
noun
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Éminence grise (literally, "gray eminence") was the sobriquet of Père Joseph (1577-1638), the Capuchin monk who served as secretary to Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister under Louis XIII. Richelieu's ambition for French domination of Europe aligned neatly with Joseph's hope to convert European Protestants to Roman Catholicism. Joseph's nickname came from the color of his cloak-and from the fact that Richelieu himself was known as the Éminence Rouge (Red Eminence). The term éminence grise came to mean a loyal confidant of any powerful individual, but recently the word has alternately come to mean a respected senior member within a field or profession (the gray in this case perhaps alluding to the color of an elder's hair).
Examples of éminence grise in a Sentence
Rob Tannenbaum, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2024
Federer serving in the Sinatra/Clooney part as the eminence grise.
—Jason Gay, WSJ, 24 Sep. 2022
That emotionally astute author, the eminence grise, the institutional memory.
—Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2021
Matthews is an eminence grise of television news, his pugilistic and red-cheeked persona familiar to viewers from countless election nights.
—BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2020
In the world of the candle obsessed, Diptyque is the eminence grise.
—Kathleen Hou, The Cut, 16 Jan. 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'éminence grise.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“éminence grise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%C3%A9minence%20grise. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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