| 释义 |
tsar, czar|tsɑː(r), zɑː(r)|
Also 7 zarr, czaar, czarr, ksar, 8– tzar.
[Romanized spellings of Russ. tsari, in Bulg. tsar king, sovereign emperor, Serb. tsar emperor, Croatian, Boh., Pol. car (= tsar, c in the Roman Slavonic orthography = {Tse} in Cyrillic, being pronounced ts or German z). The Russian form is reduced from earlier (11th c.) tsisari = OSlav. tsêsari, in oblique cases tsisar-, ‘Cæsar, emperor, βασιλεύς, king’, also (in latter senses) tsari. (In Russian, the full form tsesari is retained in the sense ‘Cæsar’ and ‘(ancient Roman) emperor’; cf. Serb. tsesar applied to the German emperor, but tsar to the Russian tsar and the Sultan.
The Slav. word ultimately represents L. Cæsar, but came, according to Miklosich, through the medium of a Germanic lang. in which the word had the general sense ‘emperor’: cf. Goth. kaisar, OHG. keisar, OLG. kêsar, ON. keysari, whence also Finnish keisari, Esth. keiser, keisri. For the change of Germanic k to c = ts in Slav., cf. church. The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages; the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whence it passed into the Western Languages generally; in some of these it is now old-fashioned; the usual Ger. form is now zar; French adopted tsar during the 19th c. This also became frequent in English towards the end of that century, having been adopted by the Times newspaper as the most suitable English spelling.]
a. Hist. The title of the autocrat or emperor of Russia; historically, borne also by Serbian rulers of the 14th c., as the Tsar Stephen Dushan.
In Russia it was partially used by the Grand Duke Ivan III, 1462–1505, and by his son Basil or Vasiliĭ, but was formally assumed by Ivan IV in 1547. According to Herberstein its actual sense in Russian was ‘king’, but it was gradually taken as = ‘emperor’, a sense which it had in other Slavonic languages. Peter the Great introduced the title imperator ‘emperor’, and the official style shortly before the Revolution of 1917 was ‘Emperor of all the Russias, Tsar of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland’; but the Russian popular appellation was still tsar.
1555Eden Decades 290 [tr. Heberstein] Wheras now this prince is cauled an Emperour, I haue thought good to shewe the tytle, and the cause of this error. Note therefore 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. 1591G. Fletcher Russe Commw. (Hakluyt Soc.) 26 Sometimes [there is a] quarrell betwixt them and the Tartar and Poland ambassadours, who refuse to call him czar, that is emperour. 1662J. Davies Voy. Ambass. 95 The word Czaar signifies King, which may be seen in their Bible, where the Muscovites, speaking of David and his successors..they call them Czaars. 1667Evelyn Diary 28 Aug., He [the Russian Envoy] deliver'd his speech in the Russe language aloud..half of it consisted in repetition of the Zarr's titles. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 394 The Russian Ksar In Mosco. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 194 The czar at the commencement of the war was in the wrong.
a1670[S. Collins] Pres. St. Russia (1671) 55 By the Grace of God We the Great Lord Tzar, and Great Duke Alexei, [etc.]..Tzar of Cazan, Tzar of Astrachan, Tsar of Siberia [etc.]. 1802–3tr. Pallas' Trav. (1812) I. 229 Heraclius, the Tzar of Georgia. 1810E. D. Clarke Trav. Russia, etc. (1839) 29/1 The connection which subsisted between the tsars of Muscovy and the emperors of Constantinople. 1890Morfill Russia 56 Ivan assuming the cognizance of the double-headed eagle, and partially taking the title of Tsar, the complete assumption of it being the achievement of Ivan IV. 1893Times (Weekly ed.) 4 Aug. 606/4 Accident to the Tsar's yacht, the Tsarevna.
b. transf. A person having great authority or absolute power; a tyrant, ‘boss’. orig. U.S.
1866in Sperber & Trittschuh Amer. Political Terms (1962) 111/1 There wuz an immense crowd, but the Czar uv all the Amerikas didn't get orf his speech here. 1893McClure's Mag. I. 375 He was being held up as ‘The Czar’—a man whose iron heels were crushing out American popular government. 1899Daily News 20 Apr. 5/5 It is unlikely that any successor will be found able to dominate..as ‘Czar’ Reed could do. 1931E. Linklater Juan in America iv. vii. 338 Red-eye was a czar at whose anger the household grew faint. 1959Listener 5 Nov. 784/1 The Czar—as we say—or President of the Motion Picture Producers' Association. 1970Guardian 18 Apr. 10/6 Many [American] Presidents..establish a staff ‘Czar’ to cut down on ‘unnecessary’ memos and contacts.
Hence tsarlet |ˈtsɑːlɪt|, a petty Tsar.
1889Fortn. Rev. XLVI. 285 This frightful régime of innumerable Tsarlets. 1905Dillon in Contemp. Rev. Aug. 280 They are sharers of autocratic absolutism, provincial tsarlets.
▸ orig. U.S. A person appointed by a government to recommend and coordinate policy in a particular area and to oversee its implementation. Usually with modifying word denoting the area of responsibility.
1933S. Walker Night Club Era 167 There are several versions of why Mulrooney quit the job to become the state beer ‘Czar’. 1942Amer. Observer 2 Feb. 8/1 From June 1940 until the recent appointment of Donald M. Nelson as war production czar, the American defense effort was best described in terms of red tape, delay, buck passing, and lack of authority. 1959Madison (New Jersey) Eagle 30 Apr. 1/1 New Jersey's newly-created ‘czar’ of transportation..announced Thursday night that he expected to have a solution to the commuting crisis worked out in from six months to a year. 1977Time Jan. 35/1 The job as energy czar will be Schlesinger's fifth Government post. 1989Economist 25 Mar. 47/2 Bennett's first move, after he was sworn in as his country's drug tsar, was to select Washington, its capital, as a test case for his new crusade. 2001Observer 25 Mar. i. 2/3 Equal pay ‘tsars’ will shame sexist employers into giving women a fair wage under a government action plan to root out workplace discrimination. |