the.com/throne room
where power performs itself, because intimidation needs good lighting and a long, long walk.
means The grand chamber where a monarch's throne sits, used for ceremonies, audiences, and the public display of royal authority (and, jokingly, slang for a bathroom).
from A plain compound of two old workhorses. "Throne" came into English from Old French "trone," itself from Latin "thronus," borrowed from Greek "thronos," meaning a seat or elevated chair of state. "Room" is solidly Germanic, from Old English "rum," originally meaning space or extent (the same root that gives us "roomy"). Bolt the seat of power to the space that holds it and you get the throne room. The cheeky toilet sense — and "the throne" for a toilet — is much later jokey slang, riffing on the porcelain seat one sits upon in private majesty.
- distance
- Versailles' hall forced courtiers into exhausting, humiliating approaches
- materials
- gold and marble chosen to make visitors feel small
- hwaseong
- Korean kings sat north, ruling while facing south
- empty seats
- many famous thrones rarely actually held a king
throne room of versailles — hall of mirrors where louis xiv held court, 73 meters long with 357 mirrors