tyrant

== English == === Alternative forms === tyran (obsolete) === Etymology === From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈtaɪɹənt/ Rhymes: -aɪɹənt Hyphenation: ty‧rant === Noun === tyrant (plural tyrants) (historical, Ancient Greece) A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession. (obsolete) Any monarch or governor. 1737, William Whiston translating Josephus, History of the Jewish Wars, I xii §2: Cassius... set tyrants over all Syria. A despot; a ruler who governs unjustly, cruelly, or harshly. 1587, Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion, translating Philippe De Mornay, XII 196: Tyrannes...be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them. (by extension) Any person who abuses the power of position or office to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly. 1817, Mary Mitford in Alfred L'Estrange, The life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870), II i 2 […] a sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are. (by extension) A villain; a person or thing who uses strength or violence to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly. 1528, Thomas Paynell translating Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni: A pike (called the tyranne of fishes). The tyrant birds, members of the family Tyrannidae, which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests. c. 1841, Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia, XXI 415 2: The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulae) are spread over the whole of America, where they represent the true flycatcher... The tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation. ==== Synonyms ==== (Greek ruler): archon, basileus, aisymnetes (unjust or strict ruler or superior): autocrat, dictator, despot, martinet (bird): tyrant bird, tyrant flycatcher, tyrant shrike, king bird, bee martin ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== → Welsh: teirant ==== Translations ==== === Adjective === tyrant (uncommon) Tyrannical, tyrannous; like, characteristic of, or in the manner of a tyrant. 1775, Abigail Adams, letter in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution (1876), 124: ...a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies. === Verb === tyrant (third-person singular simple present tyrants, present participle tyranting, simple past and past participle tyranted) (intransitive, obsolete) To act like a tyrant; to be tyrannical. (transitive, obsolete) To tyrannize. === References === === Further reading === “tyrant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “tyrant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. “tyrant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. === Anagrams === tranty == Middle English == === Noun === tyrant alternative form of tyraunt