gray eminence

American  

noun

1. a person who wields unofficial power, especially through another person and often surreptitiously or privately.

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Usage

What does gray eminence mean? Gray eminence is a term for a person who wields power in an unofficial capacity or who influences things behind the scenes, mostly or completely out of public view.The term is an English translation of the more commonly used éminence grise. The spelling grey eminence is also used.The terms are usually used in the context of politics and are typically applied to someone who wields power through another person who holds an official position. The term often implies that the person is doing this secretly or in an unauthorized or otherwise shadowy way.The terms are most often applied by the media or by those who are critical of such influence.Example: The press is calling him a gray eminence and implying that he is the one orchestrating things behind the scenes.

Etymology

Origin of gray eminence

1940–45; translation of French éminence grise

Example Sentences

At first just a gray eminence working behind the scenes while Clarence pounded the pavement, he gradually grew in prominence, reaching a fun spy-movie throwback sweet spot last episode.

From New York Times

That he’s now the current longest-running network host is as funny as any joke Kimmel has ever delivered — we all woke up one day and Kimmel became the gray eminence, the old guard, that guy who hosts the Oscars.

From Los Angeles Times

A gray eminence of the avant-garde theater world, Iván disdains the bourgeois sensibilities of Félix’s fans and the kind of work he does to entertain them.

From Washington Post

The Israeli writer Amos Oz, who died on December 28th, at the age of seventy-nine, was a cultural hero in the old sense, an acolyte who patiently made himself the gray eminence of a lost, or losing, cause: Labor Zionism, a vision that once qualified as a movement.

From The New Yorker

“Is it the long-term enmity showing itself again? He’s not a kid. He’s a gray eminence by now,” said Lester D. Friedman, emeritus professor of cinema at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the author of “Citizen Spielberg,” which examines the filmmaker’s career.

From New York Times