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Glite Dictionary
Siege Perilous

Siege Perilous

1 9.9
A seat at the Round Table for the knight meant to find the Holy Grail, deadly to others
  • noun
  • /siːdʒ ˈpɛrɪləs/
  • Literature
translation icon : Asiento Peligroso
  • Sitting in the Siege Perilous is said to be deadly for anyone who does not have the rightful claim.
  • the power of the Siege Perilous

Examples

  • Well, so Simon, at the very beginning, Yeah, it's it's actually the Siege Perilous of Arthurian legend.

  • In Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous is the seat reserved for the knight who will find the Holy Grail.

  • Many knights have attempted to claim the Siege Perilous, but only one is destined to succeed.

Surface Forms

Siege Perilous singular
Siege Perilouses plural

Morphology

Siege + perilous

This is a culture-specific proper name from Arthurian legend that uses an archaic sense of 'siege' meaning 'seat' rather than the modern 'military blockade'. Although 'perilous' transparently means dangerous, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not be able to derive the specialized meaning 'the fatal reserved seat' without prior cultural or lexical knowledge, so the expression is not compositional.

Etymology

Siege Perilous comes from the King Arthur stories and names a special chair at the Round Table; the old word siege meant 'seat' and perilous means dangerous. One popular story says only the one truly worthy knight could sit there and anyone else would be killed, so the image is of a dangerous seat kept for the chosen person, which is why the name now points to a place or role meant only for the right or destined person.