Dictionary

czar en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /t͡ʃɑːɹ/
• /t͡sɑː(ɹ)/
• /zɑː(ɹ)/

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin Caesarbor. Proto-Germanic *kaisarazder. Proto-Slavic *cěsařь Old East Slavic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ) Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ) Russian царь (carʹ)bor. English czar See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from the book Notes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) by Sigismund von Herberstein. It was supplanted by the alternative tsar in the 19th century.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)
   alt of tsar
   • To understand Russia, you have to dive deep into its history — boyars and czars, Pushkin and Pasternak, Stalin and Stalingrad. 2016 December 12, Editorial Team, “Editorial: Trump, Putin and the risks of a reset”, in Chicago Tribune, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2016:
   • Note therfore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar, signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled. 1555, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, translated by Richard Eden, The decades of the newe worlde or west India, London: William Powell, page 290:
2. (Philippine, US, informal) An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.
   • The federal mental health czar is calling for more money to expand services to help people suffering amid the social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic […] 2020 May 8, Jayne O'Donnell, “'Deaths of despair': Coronavirus pandemic could push suicide, drug deaths as high as 150k, study says”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 09 May 2020:
   • drug czar
   • cyberczar

Forms

Deriveds

czarish · czarship · if only the czar knew · czaric · czarocrat · czarocracy · czarist · Czar plum · czarate · czarocratic · border czar · czardom · czarlike

wikipedia: Notes on Muscovite Affairs · wikipedia: Sigismund von Herberstein