dragonnade means A policy by Louis XIV to intimidate Huguenots to reconvert to Roman Catholicism. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
DRAGONNADE — [Noun] A policy of coercing religious conversion by forcibly quartering soldiers, specifically dragoons, in the homes of dissenters, most notoriously under Louis XIV. Borrowed from French dragonnade, from dragon ("dragoon, a mounted infantry soldier") + the suffix -ade (denoting an action or its result). Unlike "persecution"—a broad canopy of hostility—or "inquisition"—a procedural hunt for heresy—a dragonnade is persecution made domestic and bureaucratic, a state-sanctioned violation of the hearth. It is the thunder of boots on a private stair, the stranger's sour breath across the family supper table, and the cold weight of a soldier's kit piled upon a family altar—a proof that the most profound violences often arrive with a quartermaster's receipt.
noun
- A policy by Louis XIV to intimidate Huguenots to reconvert to Roman Catholicism.
- The abandonment of a place to the violence of soldiers.