OT:"This rather disparaging term was coined by the Victorian novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He used it in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford: 'He is certainly a man who bathes and 'lives cleanly', (two especial charges preferred against him by Messrs. the Great Unwashed).'"
Having not read Paul Clifford, I lack the contextual information need to be sure; however, I wonder whether by "preferred," Lytton meant "proffered." It's quite possible that he does mean that the Great Unwashed prefer to and often enough do gripe about Clifford's (?) hygiene, though the placement of the quotation marks around "lives uncleanly," absent further contextual guidance, suggests otherwise. I'm certain about the current contextual connotation and denotation of "proffer" being apt to the nation of one's levying a charge.
Why do I mention the above? To call attention to and illustrate the practical purpose of my earlier discussion of quotation marks, which, I believe you took as "snarky." As I earlier wrote, "snark" was not at all what was in my mind when I conceived and composed that post. I am clearly not the only writer who uses quotation marks as I mentioned I use them; it's simply a standard usage.
I have no problem with your use of quotation marks: I use them a LOT and I think pretty much as you do. (And don't get me started on hyphens; or the difference between less and fewer.)
No, "preferred" seems to be what was meant: I looked it up and it's a standard legal idiom, apparently. I thought I had seen it before.
prefer charges
Also found in: Idioms.
See: accuse, arraign, book, charge, complain, impeach, implicate, incriminate, indict, involve, lodge, present, prosecute
As for your footnotes, I am reminded that I was in a rather nice college when Kennedy was assassinated, and there was a commotion that we heard in chemistry class and a student burst in with the news --- and the prof, a chemistry professor this was, said immediately to us, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," and I thought, even at that age, whatever my father is paying for this education, it's not enough.