arrogate
arruh-gayt
verb
Claim or appropriate something (usually abstract, like rights or privileges) for oneself without justification
The wellspring of inspiration is running drier than usual, dear readers, and thus I am forced to fall back on my trusty spreadsheet 1001 Words (subtitle pending). By the purest good fortune, however, I stumbled across this word in an article I read at the weekend, and that was all the inspiration I needed.
The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted ‘arrogate’’s passing resemblance to words such as ‘interrogate’ and ‘arrogant’, which are all distant descendents of the Latin word ‘rogare’ meaning ‘to ask (for)’. The very rare word ‘rogation’, which refers to a deeply serious entreaty, is perhaps the closest modern descendant of ‘rogare’.
‘Arrogate’ is a fairly rare word in modern English, appearing about once in every 400,000 words. However, if you arrogate the box of cookies your colleague brought into the office for yourself (as I practically did last week), perhaps we can increase the frequency.