despot
nounUK /ˈdɛs.pɒt/ · US /ˈdɛs.pət/
Etymology From Middle French despote, from Old French despote, from Medieval Latin despota, from Ancient Greek δεσπότης (despótēs, “lord, master, owner”). Cognate with Sanskrit दम्पति (dámpati).
1
A ruler with absolute power; a tyrant.
- The Red Holocaust is best interpreted in this light as the bitter fruit of an^([sic]) utopian gambit that was socially misengineered into a dystopic nightmare by despots in humanitarian disguise.2009, Steven Rosefielde, Red Holocaust, page 240:
2
Historical A title awarded to senior members of the imperial family in the late Byzantine Empire, and claimed by various independent or semi-autonomous rulers in the Balkans (12th to 15th centuries)
- Derived terms
- archdespot, despotat, despotate, despotess, despotic, despotism, despotist, despotize, despotocracy, despotry