Today's new word is DOYENNE

This word, which means a senior member of a group, is the feminine of doyen, and comes from the French word meaning "leader of 10" and I believe it shares some ancestors with dean. I joted it down and forgot to note where I'd seen it, but here's a nice juicy phrase I read in a review of the biography of Brooke Astor who lived to be 105. I guess she was in pretty good shape until she was 100 . . . For that birthday party guest list she wanted "99 men and me." She had a thing for Charlie Rose.

"Mrs. Astor Regrets" is a saga about sex, avarice, jealousy, betrayal, infidelity, alcoholism, social position, gossip, power, vanity and ultimately money - lots of it, and Brooke Russell Kuser Marshall Astor, the doyenne or queen of New York City, is at the center of it all.

And here's a two-fer--denizen was also in that review, so I checked to be sure I was using it correctly--means one who frequents a place.