Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Properly, an accountant; hence, an officer of the Byzantine empire, who might be
  • noun the public treasurer
  • noun the head of any administrative department, or
  • noun the chancellor of the empire.
  • noun In the Gr. Ch., the chancellor or keeper of the patriarchal seal of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • An accountant; under Constantine, an officer of the empire; a receiver of revenue; an administrator of a department.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical Any of various state officials or functionaries in the Byzantine Empire.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mediaeval Latin logotheta, from Ancient Greek λογοθέτης (logothetēs, "auditor of accounts"), from λόγος (logos, "account") + stem of τιθέναι (tithenai, "set") + -της (-tēs) agent suffix.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Teddy Roosevelt, who considered Woodrow Wilson a bloviating weakling, adopted a policy of describing him as a "logothete." This was an administrative position in the Byzantine civil service but TR chose to interpret it as an insult, much as politicitians these days will snarl "bureaucrat" as an ultimate expression of contempt. Roosevelt had recently gone through a trial for defamation by another Republican politician who objected to some things that TR had written about him. Teddy was looking for a contumelious epithet that was not actionable.

    September 4, 2014

  • The warhorse was no longer fleet

    So had to be shrewd and discreet.

    Where stronger words failed

    Old Teddy assailed

    His foe with the slur, logothete.

    June 27, 2017

  • Nice one, qms.

    Also, I'm adding this to my hence list.

    June 27, 2017