Definitions

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

  • noun The title of the emperor of Russia. See czar.

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

  • noun historical An emperor of Russia (before 1917) and of some South Slavic kingdoms.
  • noun figuratively A person with great power; an autocrat.
  • noun informal, politics, US An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian царь (car’), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ), from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar, "emperor"), believed to come from Latin Caesar.

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Examples

  • Later in the article Professor Rod Morgan, the youth justice "tsar", is quoted as saying: "If we are dragging into the system kids who can be dealt with outside then we are overloading it and that means it's likely we will not do as good a job as the public expects with higher-risk cases."

    Leave those kids alone 2006

  • Zenkevich: It's not a criticism, dear friend, only a caution; using the word tsar with the people as sheep, these are dangerous images, surely.

    IN THE JAWS OF KRONOS 2010

  • But in his role as growth tsar does he object to the word tsar? he is already causing controversy by suggesting that we shouldn't demonise bankers.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • "Ecclesiastical Regulations", the tsar is the supreme judge of the ecclesiastical college.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • It was no longer a question whether Russia was to have a tsar but whether the tsar should be a monk or not, and whether it should be

    The Russian Revolution; the Jugo-Slav Movement Frank Alfred Golder 1903

  • A Russian guide told the visitors of the events on that dark night of Jan 17, 1918, when the Bolshevik Guards called the tsar and his family to the cellar and shot them.

    TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2009

  • Even with Liverpool's transformation into an un-vanguard and the equally unexpected decision by Lord Wei, unpaid big society "tsar", to volunteer less, through lack of money and time, an initiative that eludes, insults or enrages virtually everyone beyond the innermost parts of the government is to be pursued and where possible imposed by force of will.

    The 'big society' is collapsing under its inherent absurdity | Catherine Bennett 2011

  • “Sir Alan Sugar has no business on TV now: The appointment of Sir Alan Sugar as enterprise 'tsar' is a stunt, but it is a Government-sanctioned one: and, as such, he should no longer be allowed to appear on his rather coarse television programme, says Simon Heffer”

    Sunday Morning update: There's been a revolution. Only nobody seems to have noticed Thatsnews 2009

  • “Sir Alan Sugar has no business on TV now: The appointment of Sir Alan Sugar as enterprise 'tsar' is a stunt, but it is a Government-sanctioned one: and, as such, he should no longer be allowed to appear on his rather coarse television programme, says Simon Heffer”

    Archive 2009-06-01 Thatsnews 2009

  • The paper tells us that Britain's telecoms watchdog, Ofcom, could have its decisions overturned by Brussels under proposals to create the "tsar", set to be outlined by the EU commission on Tuesday.

    Archive 2007-11-01 Helen 2007

Comments

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  • Russian emperor.

    March 3, 2007

  • Derived, as is kaiser, from Cæsar—first Caius Julius, Roman emperors thereafter being Cæsars, and figuratively, later, any emperor also.

    (This English spelling became standard after being chosen by the Times newspaper at the end of the nineteenth century.)

    December 16, 2007

  • 'The Russian revolution simmered for years and suddenly erupted when the serfs finally realised that the Czar and the Tsar were the same person.' — Woody Allen

    December 17, 2007

  • Haha! I scratched my head about those two totally different spellings for years! :-P

    December 18, 2007