Patron

In ancient Rome, wealthy Romans who paid their impecunious dependents, known as clients, a daily stipend. In France, the boss.

“Hostage taking of this kind has become more or less routine here, kidnapping the boss being to the French economic crisis what firing the employees was to the American one. Over the past few years a number of French bosses, including some at Moët et Chandon, have been held hostage. There’s actually a nice word for telling the patron to go to his room and stay there: He is merely being ‘sequestered,’ which, as euphemisms go, seems a fair trade for the Anglo-Saxon downsizing.”

Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon (2000).