| 词汇 | borgia |
| 词源 | Borgia; nepotism. Whether any Borgia was ever a poisoner is a matter of dispute, but Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, children of Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503), were reputed to indulge in such activities. Tradition has it that the Borgias employed some secret deadly poison to eliminate their enemies. Historians have never been able to substantiate this, but a glass of wine with the borgias has long been proverbial for a great but risky honor, and Borgia is still a synonym for a poisoner. There is no doubt that the Borgias were murderers, the family gener- ally a pretty unsavory lot. They are also responsible for the word nepotism, this directly from the Latin nepos, “a descend- ant, especially a nephew,” coined when Pope Alexander VI filled important church offices with his relations. Among the many family appointments Rodrigo Borgia made were the in- stalling of his son Cesare as an archbishop when the boy was only 16, and the bestowing of a cardinal’s hat on his young nephew, Giovanni. |
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