The Right Honourable ( abbreviation : The Rt Hon. or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom , the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations . The term is predominantly used today as a style associated with the holding of certain senior public offices in the United Kingdom, Canada , New Zealand , and, to a lesser extent, Australia .
49-459: Right in this context is an adverb meaning 'very' or 'fully'. Grammatically, The Right Honourable is an adjectival phrase which gives information about a person. As such, it is not considered correct to apply it in direct address, nor to use it on its own as a title in place of a name; but rather it is used in the third person along with a name or noun to be modified. Right may be abbreviated to Rt , and Honourable to Hon. , or both. The
98-754: A class of its own. Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms , the head of Lyon Court , is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon , the oldest heraldic court in
147-845: A number of Australians were entitled to the style as members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom . Appointment to the Australian equivalent of the Privy Council, the Federal Executive Council , does not entitle a person to the style. Typical appointees to the Imperial Privy Council included senior politicians and judges at state and federal level. Malcolm Fraser in 1976 was the most recent prime minister to accept appointment to
196-551: A practice recommended to be abolished following a 2010 report of the Modernisation Committee but in practice continued. In summary: Right Honourable is added as a prefix to the name of various collective entities, including: In Canada, occupants of only the three most senior public offices are styled as Right Honourable ( Le/La très honorable in French). Formerly, this was by virtue of their appointment to
245-545: A result of the 2010 changes are: During the periods of its existence, the Prime Minister of Kenya post was styled Right Honourable . In post-independence Kenya two people have been styled with the "right honorable" title. The country's founding president Jomo Kenyatta who was the first prime minister of Kenya and Raila Amolo Odinga , who served as the country's second prime minister between 2008 and 2013. Raila Odinga also known as Baba (Political father and Enigma)
294-446: A sentential adverb has other functions, the meaning is often not the same. For example, in the sentences She gave birth naturally and Naturally, she gave birth , the word naturally has different meanings: in the first sentence, as a verb-modifying adverb, it means "in a natural manner", while in the second sentence, as a sentential adverb, it means something like "of course". Words like very afford another example. We can say Perry
343-591: A single adverb is really two or more words that serve different functions. However, this distinction can be useful, especially when considering adverbs like naturally that have different meanings in their different functions. Rodney Huddleston distinguishes between a word and a lexicogrammatical-word . Grammarians find difficulty categorizing negating words , such as the English not . Although traditionally listed as an adverb, this word does not behave grammatically like any other, and it probably should be placed in
392-432: Is a prepositive adverb that modifies the clause, "there is ..." In the second sentence, "internationally" is a postpositive adverb that modifies the clause, "There is ..." By contrast, the third sentence contains "international" as a prepositive adjective that modifies the noun, "shortage." Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions ; in English, this applies especially to adverbs of location: When
441-662: Is a towering icon in Africa, well known for his Pan-Africanism and championing for good governance.The prime ministers of Namibia and Uganda are both currently styled with the same honorific. The speaker and deputy speaker of the Parliament of Uganda are also entitled to the style. The prime ministers of Barbados , Grenada , Saint Lucia , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago are styled as Right Honourable . The West Indies Federation prime minister
490-520: Is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb , an adjective , another adverb, a determiner , a clause , a preposition , or a sentence . Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by answering questions such as how , in what way , when , where , to what extent . This is called the adverbial function and may be performed by an individual adverb, by an adverbial phrase , or by an adverbial clause . Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of
539-564: Is responsible for overseeing state ceremonial in Scotland, for the granting of new arms to persons or organisations, and for confirming proven pedigrees and claims to existing arms as well as recognising clan chiefs after due diligence. The Lyon Register (officially the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland ), on which the Lord Lyon records all Scotland's coats of arms, dates from 1672. The Lord Lyon formerly also registered and recorded clan tartans , only upon request from
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#1732772385886588-474: Is sometimes dropped in written abbreviated form, but is always pronounced. According to the British government , the following persons are entitled to be styled Right Honourable : Privy counsellors are appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister, and remain members for life unless they resign or are expelled. In practice, membership of the privy council is granted to: A large proportion of
637-414: Is very fast , but not Perry very won the race . These words can modify adjectives but not verbs. On the other hand, there are words like here and there that cannot modify adjectives. We can say The sock looks good there but not It is a there beautiful sock . The fact that many adverbs can be used in more than one of these functions can confuse the issue, and it may seem like splitting hairs to say that
686-500: The Court of Session in Edinburgh. There is no appeal if the Lord Lyon refuses to grant a coat of arms, as this is not a judicial function, but an exercise of his ministerial function, although an appeal by way of judicial review may succeed if it can be shown that the Lord Lyon acted unreasonably. The Lord Lyon has several English equivalents: The Lord Lyon is also one of the few individuals in Scotland officially permitted to fly
735-661: The Crown Office recommended that the lord provosts of Aberdeen and Dundee be styled Right Honourable in the same manner as those of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Chairman of the London County Council (LCC) was granted the style in 1935 as part of the celebrations of the silver jubilee of King George V . The Chairman of the Greater London Council (GLC), the body that replaced the LCC in 1965,
784-658: The Privy Council of Ireland were entitled to be styled Right Honourable , even after the Privy Council ceased to have any functions or to meet on the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922. Nevertheless, the Lord Mayor of Dublin , like some of his counterparts in Great Britain, retained the use of the honorific style as a result of its having been conferred separately by legislation; in 2001 it
833-677: The Privy Council of the United Kingdom . However, Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of Lester Pearson . Currently, individuals who hold, or have held, one of the following offices are awarded the style of Right Honourable for life: The Right Honourable is not to be confused with His or Her Excellency , used by governors general during their term of office, or The Honourable , used only while in office (except in Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, where honorary members of
882-584: The clan chief , but this function has been taken over by the Scottish Register of Tartans . As Lyon Court is a government department, fees paid for granting coats of arms are paid to the Treasury. The misuse of arms is a criminal offence in Scotland, and treated as tax evasion. Prosecutions are brought before Lyon Court, Lord Lyon being the sole judge. Appeals from the Lyon Court can be made to
931-464: The parts of speech . Modern linguists note that the term adverb has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.). The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium , from ad- ('to'), verbum ('word', 'verb'), and
980-467: The president , vice president speaker of the House of Representatives, prime minister and chief justice are formally styled Right Honourable ( Nepali : सम्माननीय , romanized: Sammānanīya ). Ministers, members of parliament (Lower and Upper Houses and provincial parliaments) and Chief ministers of provinces are styled "Honourable" only. It is usually joked during informal discussions about
1029-415: The prime minister and some other senior cabinet ministers were customarily appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus styled Right Honourable . Helen Clark did not recommend the appointment of any new privy counsellors during her tenure as Prime Minister, from 1999 to 2008. In 2009 it was announced that her successor, John Key , had decided not to make any further recommendations to
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#17327723858861078-517: The speaker and refer to other members indirectly. This practice is intended to enforce a polite tone to maintain order and good honour. Only the occupant of the Chair addresses Members by name. Members generally refer to one another as "my honourable friend" if in the same party , and "the honourable gentleman/lady/member" otherwise. If needed, constituencies ("the honourable member for ...") or ministerial offices (e.g. "my right honourable friend
1127-513: The Crown for appointments to the Privy Council. In August 2010, the Queen of New Zealand announced that, with immediate effect, individuals who hold, and those persons who after the date of the signing of these rules are appointed to, the following offices are awarded the style Right Honourable for life: This change was made because the practice of appointing New Zealanders to the Privy Council of
1176-613: The Executive Council enjoy the title permanently) by provincial premiers and cabinet ministers, and for life by senators and members of the King's Privy Council for Canada (chiefly cabinet ministers, as well as other figures such as party leaders or provincial premiers who may be appointed from time to time). The title may also be granted for life by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of
1225-687: The Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh". Other lord mayors may be styled Right Worshipful , and other lord provosts do not use a style. By the 1920s, a number of city mayors, including the Lord Mayor of Leeds, were unofficially using the style Right Honourable , and the matter was consequently raised in parliament. The Lord Mayor of Bristol at present still uses the style Right Honourable , without official permission. In guidance issued in June 2003,
1274-617: The Prime Minister") can be used for clarity. Referring to one another as honourable is merely a courtesy used within the House, and is not a style used outside the chamber. However, when a member is in fact entitled to be styled Right Honourable (in practice always through membership of the Privy Council), they are referred to as such in the chamber. Further embellishments are traditionally applied to clergy ( reverend ), military officers ( gallant ) and barristers ( learned ),
1323-448: The Privy Council and thus to be styled Right Honourable . Of his 21 predecessors, only four were not members of the Privy Council – Alfred Deakin (declined appointment), Chris Watson (never offered), Arthur Fadden (accepted after leaving office), and Gough Whitlam (declined appointment). The last Governor-General to be entitled to the style was Sir Ninian Stephen , who left office in 1988. The last active politician to be entitled to
1372-414: The United Kingdom had ceased. However, the change had little immediate effect, as all but two of the holders or living former holders of the offices granted the style had already been appointed to the Privy Council. The living New Zealanders holding the style Right Honourable as a result of membership of the Privy Council are: The living New Zealanders holding the style The Right Honourable for life as
1421-464: The appellation may be ignored in the judge's home country. It is the current practice of the House of Lords and the College of Arms to apply the style Right Honourable to privy counsellors only. All holders of a substantive peerage below the rank of marquess are entitled to be styled Right Honourable , as are their wives and widows. However, a peer's heir who uses a courtesy title is not accorded
1470-461: The articles on individual languages and their grammars. Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar, and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in schools and used in dictionaries. However, modern grammarians recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a number of different functions. Some describe adverbs as a "catch-all" category that includes all words that do not belong to one of
1519-514: The corresponding style. Peers above the rank of earl are entitled to different styles: dukes and duchesses are styled The Most Noble or His or Her Grace , and marquesses and marchionesses are styled as The Most Honourable . In order to differentiate peers who are also members of the Privy Council—and therefore entitled to a style in both capacities—from peers who are not, the post-nominal letters PC can be used to identify
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1568-403: The first sentence is an adjective, since it is a prepositive modifier that modifies the noun numbers . The word "even" in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the verb "drank." Although it is possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does not modify either in such cases, as in: In the first sentence, "Internationally"
1617-505: The following examples: Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns , which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me ; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly , whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud ). However, because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms , their respective functions are sometimes conflated: The word even in
1666-479: The former and current prominent politicians of the United Kingdom are thus entitled to be styled Right Honourable . No new appointments have been made to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland since 1971, but surviving appointed members remain entitled to the style. Non-British Commonwealth-citizen judges appointed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are also entitled to the style, although
1715-529: The function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause , or simply an adverbial . In English , adverbs of manner (answering the question how? ) are often formed by adding -ly to adjectives, but flat adverbs (such as in drive fast , drive slow , and drive friendly ) have the same form as the corresponding adjective. Other languages often have similar methods for deriving adverbs from adjectives ( French , for example, uses
1764-408: The lord provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow are all entitled to be styled Right Honourable while in office. The lord mayors of Belfast and Cardiff are so entitled by an explicit grant from the sovereign, and the others through ancient custom. The style is used with the name of the office, not the personal name of the office-holder, e.g. "The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London" or "The Right Honourable
1813-490: The meaning permits, adverbs may undergo comparison , taking comparative and superlative forms. In English this is usually done by adding more and most before the adverb ( more slowly, most slowly ), although there are a few adverbs that take inflected forms, such as well , for which better and best are used. For more information about the formation and use of adverbs in English, see English adverbs . For other languages, see § In specific languages below, and
1862-560: The nominal suffix - ium . The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases . An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples: Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives , and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples: They can also modify determiners , prepositional phrases , or whole clauses or sentences , as in
1911-416: The offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. This has been done on two occasions: to eight prominent political figures to mark the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 1992, and to longtime Member of Parliament Herb Gray upon his retirement in 2002. Over the years, a number of prominent Canadians became members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus were entitled to use
1960-474: The other parts of speech. A logical approach to dividing words into classes relies on recognizing which words can be used in a certain context. For example, the only type of word that can be inserted in the following template to form a grammatical sentence is a noun : When this approach is taken, it is seen that adverbs fall into a number of different categories. For example, some adverbs can be used to modify an entire sentence, whereas others cannot. Even when
2009-422: The privy counsellors. This applies to peers of all rank, as a holder of a dukedom or marquessate who becomes a Privy Counsellor retains their higher style and so could not be identified without the letters. In practice, in contexts where there might be confusion, official publications use the style Right Honourable exclusively to identify privy counsellors. The lord mayors of London, Cardiff, Belfast and York; and
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2058-667: The style Right Honourable , either because of their services in Britain (e.g. serving as envoys to London) or as members of the Imperial War Cabinet , or due to their prominence in the Canadian Cabinet . These included all but three of Canada's early prime ministers ( Alexander Mackenzie , John Abbott , and Mackenzie Bowell ), who governed before the title was used domestically. Previously in New Zealand
2107-406: The style was Ian Sinclair , who retired in 1998. The few Australian recipients of British peerages were also entitled to the style. Present-day Australian governments no longer recommend Australians for elevation to the peerage or appointment to the Privy Council. However, some present-day Australian citizens either hold hereditary peerages (e.g. Malcolm Murray, 12th Earl of Dunmore ). Members of
2156-534: The suffix -ment ), or else use the same form for both adjectives and adverbs, as in German and Dutch, where for example schnell or snel , respectively, mean either "quick" or "quickly" depending on the context. Many other adverbs, however, are not related to adjectives in this way; they may be derived from other words or phrases, or may be single morphemes . Examples of such adverbs in English include here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very, almost , etc. Where
2205-673: The use of the word "Honourable" to differentiate senior and less senior government dignitories. It can also be spelled in English as The Rt. Hon’ble . In South Korea , the President , Prime Minister , Speaker of the National Assembly and Chief Justice can use the Right Honourable style. In Australia, the lords mayor of Adelaide , Brisbane , Hobart , Melbourne , Perth and Sydney are entitled to be styled Right Honourable while in office. Historically,
2254-619: The world that is still in daily operation. The historic title of the post was the High Sennachie , and he was given the title of Lord Lyon from the lion in the coat of arms of Scotland . The post was in the early nineteenth century held by an important nobleman, the Earl of Kinnoull , whose functions were in practice carried out by the Lyon-Depute. The practice of appointing Lyon-Deputes, however, ceased in 1866. The Lord Lyon
2303-577: Was also styled as such during that office's short existence. In Malaysia, only the Prime Minister , his or her deputy , four of judges of the Federal Court and MPs who are titled Tun are styled as Right Honourable (Malay: Yang Amat Berhormat, Yang Amat Arif for judges) at the federal level. For the state level, all the Menteris Besar, Chief Ministers and Premier along with their deputies are also styled Right Honourable . In Nepal,
2352-531: Was removed, as a consequence of local government law reform. In Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon ) the British practice was followed with Ceylonese members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom were styled Right Honourable and were referred to as Mahamanya in Sinhala . Ceylonese appointees to the privy council included D. S. Senanayake and Sir John Kotelawala . Adverb An adverb
2401-565: Was similarly granted the style until the GLC was abolished in 1986. Right Honourable is also used as a style by the Lord Lyon King of Arms in office, preceding his title rather than his personal name, as with other applications ex officio. In the chamber of the House of Commons , members are not permitted to address each other directly, nor to name other members, but must instead address
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