More Language Nattering

[gnomi]

It's all over the reporting about Gonzales firing the prosecutors; it plays a significant role in the end of the West Wing episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet."

"I serve at the pleasure of the president."

Anyone know when the phrase was coined?

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Well, "during the King's pleasure" was a fairly standard phrase in Tudor-era English law, to differentiate those Court positions which could be fired and hired without his having to get the office-holder executed first.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Centuries old, I'd have thought. "At his pleasure", in the sense of "while it pleases him".