The autocrat is the Slavic title of the head of state

The expression "... the autocrat All-Russian, Moscow, Kiev ..." is familiar to many and firmly associated with the lessons of history. Indeed, it was with these words that the title of Russian emperors began.

The meaning and origin of the word

The autocrat is in translation from the Greek "autocrat" (αύτοκράτωρ) and in its essence means empowered by the unlimited power of the ruler of the country. Such a head of state is at the same time a legislative, executive and judicial branch of power and is not limited in actions and decisions neither by parliament nor by ministers.

The word "autocrat" turned into a royal title during the time of Ivan III of the Dark, namely in 1493, when the last strings that subordinated the Moscow Rus to the power of the Mongol-Tatars were torn. Gradually the kingdom grew, and the titles were added to the title of the annexed lands - White, Novgorod, Kiev and others.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the title of Emperor of Russia occupied half of the modern sheet, and it took 3 minutes to pronounce it. Despite the fact that after the events of 1905 the country had a parliament, the last Czar Nicholas II Romanov continued to be called "The Emperor the Autocrat of All Russia ...".

Derivation analysis

From the point of view of the sciences of language, the autocrat is a masculine noun, animate, nominal. It has 2 roots like words such as the sixth grader, linguist, Old Russian and others.

When parsing a word, the following parts are formed:

Thus, the analysis of the constituent parts allows us to determine that the word "autocrat" is a title with the meaning "an independent ruler of the country".

Synonyms

In our time the word is obsolete, and you can meet it only in history textbooks. However, royal power in the world has been preserved and spread both in European countries and in less civilized states of the East and Africa. Rulers in them are called differently - the king, the sultan or the king. In the literature (especially in the media), other words are used, which, in fact, are synonymous with the word "autocrat". It is a monarch, ruler, head of state, crowned, unanimous, porphyry-bearer, sovereign, supreme sovereign, ruler.

These words are used, as a rule, to denote the place of a person in the hierarchy. But such notions as "despot" and "tyrant" are often used. Thus, a negative attitude is expressed not to a specific person, but to the very idea of hereditary power.