czar

Pronunciation

• IPA: /zɑː(ɹ)/, /t͡sɑː(ɹ)/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Russian царь (tsarʹ),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Old East Slavic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ, “emperor, king”),^[2][5][6] from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Greek kaîsar,^[2][3][4][6] from Latin Caesar.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Barnhart says it came through Polish,^[3] while Merriam-Webster gives New Latin czar.^[5] The spelling with cz- goes back to Herberstein's book on Muscovy (1549), the main early source on Russia in western Europe.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The title of the emperor of Russia (1555),^[3][5][4] first adopted by Ivan IV in 1547.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Times newspaper adopted the spelling tsar toward the end of the 19th century, and it became frequent in English.^[4] The transferred sense of a person with dictatorial power was first recorded in American English in 1866, of President Andrew Johnson.^[3][4] In modern American use a czar is often an official appointed to oversee a particular area of policy.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1547 – Ivan IV adopts the title.^[4]
• 1555 – the Russian emperor.^[3][5][4]
• 1717 – czarina.^[3][4]
• 1866 – a person with great power, first of Andrew Johnson.^[3][4]
• 1954 – czarist, per Barnhart.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A male emperor or king, especially one of the emperors of Russia before 1917.
2. A person with great power; an autocrat.
3. An official appointed to regulate or oversee a particular area, as in drug czar.

Word family

• czardom
• czarist

Related words

• tsar
• Caesar
• kaiser

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that czar is the commonest form in American use and nearly the only one in the extended senses, while tsar is preferred by most Slavic scholars as a more accurate transliteration and is usual in scholarly writing about the Russian emperors.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House