tyrant
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtaɪɹənt/
rhymes: -aɪɹənt
Forms: form: tyrants
form: tyran
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.
Senses: examples: text: To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], line 71:
text: The reappearance of tyranny [in the 4th century BC] had many reasons... one of the main causes was the development of antagonism between rich and poor; tyrants came to power exploiting a social and political imbalance within the state.
ref: 1980, Michel Austin et al., Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece, section 142:
text: Ancient Greek tyrannies appeared once more in great numbers with the breakdown of the polis in the period from the fourth to the second centuries [BC]. These later tyrannies tended to rely on a more narrow class base and to use a brutal military rule, and thus writers could use the words tyrant and tyranny, with their modern connotations of evil and cruelty, to describe them accurately.
ref: 1996, Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny, from Plato to Arendt, section 4:
qualifier: Ancient Greece
glosses: A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
examples: text: Cassius... set tyrants over all Syria.
ref: 1737, William Whiston translating Josephus, History of the Jewish Wars, I xii §2
glosses: Any monarch or governor.
examples: text: Tyrannes...be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them.
ref: 1587, Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion, translating Philippe De Mornay, XII 196
text: I am the Sonne of Marcus Cato, hoe.
A Foe to Tyrants, and my Countries Friend.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], line 5:
text: Here is a Proclamation for a Prince: that proclaims him in whoſe name it is emitted [James II of England], to be the greateſt Tyrant that ever lived in the world, and their Revolt who have diſowned him to be the juſteſt that ever was.
ref: 1744, Alexander Shiels [i.e., Alexander Shields], “Period VI. Containing the Testimony through the Continued Tract of the Present Deformation, from the Year 1660 to this Day.”, in A Hind Let Loose: Or, An Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland, for the Interest of Christ; with the True State thereof in All Its Periods: …, Edinburgh: Reprinted by R. Drummond and Company, and sold by William Gray bookbinder in the Grassmarket, and several others, &c., →OCLC, pages 167–168:
text: They [viz., the Framers of the American Constitution] held England to be the freest and best-governed country in the world, but were resolved to avoid the weak points which had enabled King George III. to play the tyrant, and which rendered English liberty, as they thought, far inferior to that which the constitutions of their own States secured.
ref: 1888, James Bryce, The American Commonweath, I iv 42:
glosses: A despot; a ruler who governs unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
examples: text: A plague vpon the Tyrant that I serue
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 161:
text: […] a sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are.
ref: 1817, Mary Mitford in Alfred L'Estrange, The life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870), II i 2
glosses: Any person who abuses the power of position or office to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
examples: text: I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, :[13]:
text: A pike (called the tyranne of fishes).
ref: 1528, Thomas Paynell translating Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni
text: O dissembling Curtesie! How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 85:
text: Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.
ref: 1847, A. Helps, Friends in Council, I viii 132:
glosses: A villain; a person or thing who uses strength or violence to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
examples: text: The Tyrant... The courage of this little Bird is singular.
ref: 1731, Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, I 55:
text: 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.
ref: c. 1841, Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia, XXI 415 2
text: Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to...the King-bird..., but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown...as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.
ref: 1895, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds:
glosses: The tyrant birds, members of the family Tyrannidae, which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests.
Synonyms: sense: Greek ruler
word: archon
sense: Greek ruler
word: basileus
sense: Greek ruler
word: aisymnetes
sense: unjust or strict ruler or superior
word: autocrat
sense: unjust or strict ruler or superior
word: dictator
sense: unjust or strict ruler or superior
word: despot
sense: unjust or strict ruler or superior
word: martinet
sense: bird
word: tyrant bird
sense: bird
word: tyrant flycatcher
sense: bird
word: tyrant shrike
sense: bird
word: king bird
sense: bird
word: bee martin
Derived terms: black-backed water tyrant
chat-tyrant
ground tyrant
pygmy tyrant
shrike-tyrant
tit-tyrant
tody-tyrant
tyrancy
tyrant-air
tyrant-bird
tyrant-chat
tyrant-craft
tyrantess
tyrant-fish
tyrant flycatcher
tyrant-hater
tyrant-hating
tyranthood
tyrant-killer
tyrant-killing
tyrant-kind
tyrantless
tyrantlike
tyrant-manakin
tyrant-murder
Tyrant period
tyrant-queller
tyrant-quelling
tyrant-ridden
tyrant-scouraging
tyrant-shrike
tyrant-slayer
tyrant-tamer
tyrant-wren
wagtail-tyrant
Related terms: tyranness
tyrannical
tyrannicide
tyrannize
tyrannous
tyranny
tyrantry
tyrantship