SOVEREIGN, n. 1. One who governs without portfolio, portfolio being unnecessary. See also: two years old, one finger, the space between faces. 2. The raised index finger as formal instrument of state. Etymology uncertain. Predates language. Predates sleep. 3. (archaic) One whose authority increases in direct proportion to the earliness of the hour. cf. four a.m., the sofa, the blanket across the knees of the recently resigned. 4. The distance of twenty centimetres. The specific gravity of being looked at by someone who has not yet learned to pretend. 5. A dog asleep behind a man's back, comma-shaped, indifferent to all matters of governance. 6. What the lamp knows: it does not argue. It simply pools. It holds what is inside it warm against what is not.