#honchess

“I’ll tell you,” said Vimes. “A monarch’s an absolute ruler, right? The head honcho–”

“Unless he’s a queen,” said Carrot.

Vimes glared at him, and then nodded.

“OK, or the head honchette–”

“No, that’d only apply if she was a young woman. Queens tend to be older. She’d have to be a…a honcharina? No, that’s for the very young princesses. No. Um. A honchess, I think.”

Vimes paused. There’s something in the air in this city, he thought. If the Creator had said, “Let there be light” in Ankh-Morpork, he’d have got no further because of all the people saying, “What color?”

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms