Etymologically
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αὐτοκράτωρ

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /au̯.to.krá.tɔːr/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /aɸ.toˈkra.tor/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /af.toˈkra.tor/[1]

Forms

αὐτοκράτωρ (autokrátōr) m (genitive αὐτοκράτορος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) + κράτος (krátos, “power, rule”), like ναυκράτωρ (naukrátōr).[2][1] The second member κράτωρ (krátōr) does not occur as a word on its own.[2][3] Beekes and the DGE take αὐτοκράτωρ as a remodelling of an older *αὐτοκρατής (*autokratḗs) after the agent nouns in -τωρ (-tōr).[4][3] Chantraine sets this view beside another, in which *κράτωρ (*krátōr) is an old neuter, a doublet of the neuter noun, which would make the formation very old.[2] Schwyzer rejected a derivation from κρατήτωρ (kratḗtōr).[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Thucydides, of persons and cities that are their own masters, free and independent, and of envoys, commanders and boards sent out with full powers.[6][7][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose the word described independence (a city not subject to another, a young man come of age) and full authority: Aristophanes and the orators use it of plenipotentiary envoys, Thucydides and Xenophon of generals with sole command, Plato of a ruler answerable to no one.[6][7] Plato's Cratylus quotes Anaxagoras calling mind “self-ruling”, and the Fourth Book of Maccabees calls reason the master of the passions.[6][3]

Greek writers on Rome used it for Roman offices: Polybius for Latin dictātor, Plutarch for imperātor and for the emperor himself.[6][2] Under the Empire it was the official Greek term for the Roman emperor, with the derivatives αὐτοκρατορία (autokratoría) and αὐτοκρατορικός (autokratorikós).[2]

Medieval Greek used it as a noun, the title of the emperor.[8][5] It survives in learned form as Modern Greek αυτοκράτορας (aftokrátoras), the title of an absolute monarch (the Roman and Byzantine emperors, the German Kaiser, the Russian tsar, Napoleon) and, figuratively, a person who dominates a field.[9] English borrowed autocrator in 1759.[10]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of free cities, of envoys with full powers and of generals in sole command.[6][3]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of plenipotentiary envoys, and Xenophon of a young man who has come of age.[6][7]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the Roman dictator.[6][2]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the Latin title imperator and for the Roman emperor.[6][2]
  • Middle Ages – Medieval Greek uses it as a noun for the emperor.[8][5]
  • 1759 – English borrows it as autocrator.[10]
  • Modern Greek – The learned αυτοκράτορας (aftokrátoras) is the title of an absolute monarch.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Independent, one's own master; of a city, free from foreign rule; of a youth, no longer under his parents.[6][7]
  2. Self-governed; of the mind, ruling itself.[7][6]
  3. Having full powers: of envoys, plenipotentiary; of magistrates and commanders, with sole and absolute authority.[6][7]
  4. With a genitive, in full control of something: of a city, of itself; of reason, of the passions.[6][3]

Noun

  1. (Roman history) A dictator; the Latin imperator; the Roman emperor.[6][2]
  2. (Byzantine) The emperor.[8][5]

Word family

  • αὐτοκρατορία (autokratoría)
  • αὐτοκρατορικός (autokratorikós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com