My kingdom for a word!

[clarentine]

I need a title for a person whose job it is to guard a royal personage with the intent of scaring away anyone who might want to do harm to said royal personage. Guardian is not scary enough. Protector has other specific meanings with regard to royal personages that I am not interested in invoking. Paladin, suggested by Bartleby.com, is associated in my mind with people of shiny good character (thanks so much, Gary Gygax), which need not apply here.

So: what might you suggest for this person encouraged to be a bully, a Doberman (reputation, smarts, capability), a dispenser of warning glares?

(Gosh, it would be nice to be able to just call him a Doberman, but I think he might object.)

Words of foreign derivation are fine if I can make the connotation work. The society in question is not-French, if that helps jog anything loose.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Enforcer is the first word that pops into my head.

[clarentine]

That's better than Seneschal, which is what I was using before I really looked it up!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

If the society in question is also used to pre-modern implements of war, I'd go with a nice Fist, or Sword, or Shield. Otherwise, I'm all out.

[clarentine]

Hmm. Considering how one would address Sir Fist, Sir Sword, Sir Shield.

[eseme]

Wait, you need to call him Sir Something?

That confuses me. I tend to think of such a person as a warrior, and not one to stand on cerimony...

[clarentine]

He is in direct contact with the prince (who will shortly be king), and the prince is using him as the stick side of carrot-and-stick. He's visible, and intended to be thus. The prince won't use Sir X's family name, since he's given it up, but he won't use his first name, either--that's too familiar--and needs to be able to refer to him as something when pointing him out to recalcitrant ministers and shirelords.

So, Sir X or my lord X.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

It scans reasonable to me. But I'm not exactly the best judge of these things.

[lotusice.livejournal.com]

Bodyguard, or is that too obvious? The terms close protection, close personal protection and personal protection are all used out there in the real world.

[clarentine]

I'm trying to avoid bodyguard. I know it fits the description...but the current title needs to be one level above that, in the sense that he's more proactive now. If that makes sense.

[eseme]

I think the dog analogy works. Some sort of guard dog.

Maybe try a different breed name than doberman? I'm not a dog person, but I know many breed names are from other languages (and there are some mighty obscure breeds out there).

Otherwise, do something like BabelFish the phrase guard dog...

[clarentine]

I just got the wide-eyed Ooo! Mastiff!

Though I still have the problem of how one addresses My Lord Mastiff. *g*

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

My Lord Protector? Though that does have overtones of Oliver Cromwell and/or Richard III.

My Lord/Sir Enforcer? Sir Guardian? (A bit Victorian orphanish that one, though.) My Lord/Sir Praetorian? Sir Corpsman? (That doesn't really exist - it's an amalgam of corps as in army corps and man, obviously. So he'd be the one in charge of all the different corps, or something like that.)

Oh, you've set me off now. I need to get my thesaurus....

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

And I'm still at it:

Mameluke, hoplite, fedayeen (a bit controversial, that one) ,carabineer (doesn't necessarily have to have a gun, does he? Well, maybe he does), Myrmidon, housecarl...

And that's before I even start on predators and suchlike. I think I'd better stop now *g*

[clarentine]

predators and suchlike

::snerk::

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

You're a bad influence. It's not like I don't have enough procrastination techniques of my own!

But it's in a good cause. Any hot favourites yet?

[clarentine]

Mastiff, actually. He'll probably have some sort of real boring title and end up being called the King's Mastiff. I like that.

And research counts...but only it it's for your own book!

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling that might be the case.....

I shall just have to conjure up a Praetorian in Ancient Greece, or faery.

[clarentine]

*g* I've been through three of them already. But bring it on! Someone's bound to go down a path I've missed.

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Drat, so you have! Apologies. See, as soon as I get thinking about the question, what you've already said becomes a blur....

[clarentine]

I have a whole list of possibles written down in front of me.

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

I thought you might have, but that's never stopped me yet *g*

I like 'The King's Mastiff', though.

[clarentine]

It certainly gets the point across. I think we have a winner!

[brni.livejournal.com]

perhaps something derived from wolves. there's a long history in a number of languages of wolf==protector. and the wolf avoids connotations of domesticity that you get with dogs - the wolf is wild and, essentially, dangerously uncontrolled.

for southern slavs, the word for wolf is vuk (pr vook), and was adopted throughout history by kings and such who sought to expand their lands. And of course, there's many a celtic and gaelic name that's derived from "wolf."

[clarentine]

Oh, cool. So Vukovic is something like "son of the wolf," assuming the -vic part works similar to the Russian construction it looks like?

(I know so little about so many languages.)

And you are closer than you know: in addition to being a protector, Canum's also a shapeshifter whose favorite alternate shape is the wolf. You give me ideas for what his own people might call him.

[brni.livejournal.com]

yup, Mr Wolfson it is. :)

[clarentine]

Yay grammar! *g*

[garwalf.livejournal.com]

Wolf related, eh? Should I put in a plug for "Garwalf"? And add a link to one of my favorite sites, while I'm at it: http://www.etymonline.com/wolf.php
Those of you who occasionally find yourselves reading encyclopedias for fun may loose a few hours following the histories and relations of words on the "Online Etymology Dictionary".

[clarentine]

I'll bookmark it! *g*