Dictionary

despotically en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English despotic Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al Middle English -ly Middle English -ally English -ally English despotically From despotic + -ally.

Meanings

1. In a despotic manner.
   • I know men governing despotically great stretches of that country, whose every step in life has been such that a slip would have sent them to Dartmoor; but they trod along the high hard wall between right and wrong, the wall as sharp as a sword-edge, as softly and craftily and lightly as a cat. 1910, w: Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions:
   • Thus Bracton: and Fortescue also, having first well distinguished between a monarchy absolutely and despotically regal, which is introduced by conquest and violence, and a political or civil monarchy, which arises from mutual consent; (of which last species he asserts the government of England to be) immediately lays it down as a principle, that “the king of England must rule his people according to the decrees of the laws thereof 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
   • The doctor may lay down the law despotically enough to the patient at points where the patient's mind is simply blank; but when the patient has a prejudice the doctor must either keep it in countenance or lose his patient. 1906–1909 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “(please specify the page)”, in The Doctor’s Dilemma, Getting Married, & The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, London: Constable and Company, published 1911, →OCLC:

Forms

Translations (4)

ca despòticament (in a despotic manner) · fi despoottisesti (in a despotic manner) · fr despotiquement (in a despotic manner) · ka დესპოტურად (in a despotic manner)