▪ I. emperor
(ˈɛmpərə(r))
Forms: 3 emperere, 3–8 emperour(e, (3 amperur, aumperour, 4 emparour, -ur, empere, emperore, -ure, eemperour, 5 emperowre), 5–6 emproure, -ure, (6 emporour, empowr, empoure, -pre-, -prioure), (4 imparour, -ur, imperur, -owr, 4–6 imperour), 4, 6– emperor.
[The ME. emperere, emperoure, are respectively ad. OF. emperere(s (nom. case) and empereor (oblique case):—L. impeˈrātor, imperāˈtōrem, agent-noun f. imperāre to command.
The L. imperator, orig. denoting in general the holder of a chief military command, became in the period of the Roman republic a title of honour, bestowed on a victorious general by the acclamation of the army on the field of battle. This title was afterwards conferred by the senate on Julius Cæsar and on Augustus, with reference to the military powers with which the chief of the state was invested; and in accordance with this precedent it was adopted by all the subsequent rulers of the empire except Tiberius and Claudius. In post-classical Latin it became the chief official designation of the sovereign, being interpreted in the sense of ‘absolute ruler’ (in Greek αὐτοκράτωρ). In this sense it continued to be applied to the rulers of the Western and Eastern Roman empires until they severally came to an end. In a.d. 800 when the Western empire was nominally revived, the Frankish king Charles the Great (Charlemagne) was crowned by the pope with the title of imperator, implying that he was invested with the same supremacy over European monarchs that the rulers of the earlier Roman empire had possessed. The title continued to be borne by his successors, the heads of the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ (popularly the ‘Empire of Germany’) down to its extinction in 1806. The Romanic (and hence the English) forms of the word were originally applied to the sovereigns of the Eastern empire, to those of the Romano-Germanic empire, and historically to those of the earlier Roman empire. For subsequent extensions of meaning (common to English with the Romanic langs.), see below in sense 3.]
I. 1. The sovereign of the undivided Roman Empire, or of the Western or Eastern Empire.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 244 Þuruh Julianes heste þe Amperur. a 1300 Cursor M. 11277 (Cott.) In august time, þe Imparour, Was vs born vr sauueour. c 1300 St. Margarete 23 Liþer was þemperor Diocletian. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 4089 He sal be last emparour þat þare sal be. 1388 Wyclif Matt. xxii. 21 Ȝelde ȝe to the emperoure tho thingis that ben the emperouris. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. iv. (1520) 27 b/2 He was commaunded by the letter of themperoure to come to Rome. 1549 Compl. Scot. 25 Marcus antonius vas venquest be the empriour agustus. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 36 Baldwin had before married Emanuel the Greek Emperors neece. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 431 Rome, under her emperours, united the evils of both systems. 1833 Cruse Eusebius iv. x. 137 This emperor [Adrian] having finished his mortal career. |
2. The head of the Holy Roman Empire, also styled of Almaigne or Germany.
In German documents
Kaiser (the Teutonic form of the imperial name
Cæsar) was used in this sense, and is therefore regarded as the German equivalent of ‘emperor’.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 486 The aumperour Frederic, & the king Philip of France Alle hii wende to Ierusalem. c 1450 Guy Warw. (C.) 4205 Therfore y sey yow, syr emperere. 1529 Rastell Pastyme (1811) 81 Philyppe Auguste..wanne a great battell agaynst Otton the emperour. c 1552 Bale K. Johan 1 My granfather was an empowr excelent. 1615 Stow Annales 661/1 His lordship..taking leaue of the Emperour, departed from Vienna. 1735 Oldmixon Hist. Eng., Geo. I, vi. 763 The Treaty of Vienna between the Emperor and King of Spain. 1804 [see 3]. 1873 Bryce Holy Rom. Empire (ed. 4) xii. 186 No act of sovereignty is recorded to have been done by any of the Emperors in England. |
3. a. In wider sense, as a title of sovereignty considered superior in dignity to that of ‘king’.
In the Middle Ages, and subsequently, the title was often applied to extra-European monarchs ruling over wide territories. We still speak of the Emperors of China, Japan, Morocco, and historically of the Mogul Emperors of India and the Emperor of the Aztecs. Since the early part of the 16th c. the title has been used as the equivalent of the Russian
tsar (or
czar). The Sultans of Turkey (who assumed the style of
Keisar-i-Rūm, ‘Cæsar of Rome’, as successors of the Byzantine emperors) were occasionally spoken of as emperors. Until the present century ‘the Emperor’ always, unless otherwise interpreted by the context, denoted the ‘emperor of Germany’. But in 1804 Napoleon I. assumed the title of ‘Emperor of the French’, and in the same year the emperor Francis II ‘of Germany’ added to his other titles that of ‘Emperor of Austria’, which he retained when in 1806 he put an end to the Holy Roman Empire by his abdication. Subsequently the style of emperor has been adopted in several other instances. ‘At present (1889) the only sovereigns so called are (apart from Asiatic and African potentates) those of Russia, Austria, Germany (since 1870), and Brazil (since 1822); and in 1876 the title of Empress of India was assumed by Queen Victoria.’ (
N.E.D.)
| c 1400 Mandeville v. 42 The grete Cham..is the gretteste Emperour..of alle the parties beȝonde. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 22. §1 The laufull kinges and emperours of this realme. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus Prol. 122 As I have red of Kingis and Empreouris. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. ii. 120 The Emperor of Russia was my Father. 1655 M. Carter Hon. Rediv. (1660) 70 Yet our Kings have been styled Emperors, and this Realm of England called an Empire. 1772 Sir W. Jones Ess. i. (1777) 185 Being assisted by the emperours of India and China. 1804 tr. Proclam. Francis II, 11 Aug. in Ann. Reg. 695 Immediately after our title of elected emperor of the Romans shall be inserted that of hereditary emperor of Austria. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 132 Napoleon, by the grace of God..emperor of the French. Ibid. VII. 77 The government of China..depends on the will..of the reigning emperor. a 1859 De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. 1858 I. 162 note, An emperor is a prince uniting in his own person the thrones of several distinct kingdoms. 1872 Freeman Gen. Sketch xvi. §3. (1874) 330 Since Buonaparte's time the title of Emperor, which once meant so much, has ceased to have any particular meaning. |
b. transf. and
fig.| a 1300 Cursor M. 18179 Þou ert..sa hei wit-all, Bath als king and emparur. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxii. 429 Ich wolde Þat..peers..[were] Emperour of alle the worlde. c 1400 Rom. Rose 7217 Of all this world is emperour Gyle my fadir. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 7 b, In heuen, euery man..shall be as an emperour. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iii. 9 Thou'rt an Emperor (Cesar, Keiser and Pheazar). 1602 ― Ham. iv. iii. 22 Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 510 Nor less Then Hells dread Emperour. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iii. xx. (1715) 149 Neptune the Great Emperor of the Sea. |
4. a. In the popular names of certain butterflies:
purple emperor,
† emperor of the woods,
Apatura Iris;
† emperor of Morocco, a collector's name,
perh. = purple emperor.
| 1773 Wilkes Eng. Moths & Butterfl. pl. 120 The Purple Highflier, or Emperor of the Woods. 1775 Harris Aurelian pl. 3 Purple Emperor. 1788 P. Pindar (J. Wolcott) title, Sir Joseph Banks and the Emperor of Morocco. 18.. Lytton Kenelm Chil. v. v, A rare butterfly..called the Emperor of Morocco. |
b. ellipt. for
emperor fish,
emperor penguin.
| 1927 Times (weekly ed.) 3 Feb. 115/3 The King penguins..are, next to the Emperors, the largest of the family. 1929 Times 2 Aug. 14/1 ‘Emperors’, beautiful fish of about 30 lb., and of a rich red colour all over. 1967 M. E. Gillham Sub-Antarctic Sanctuary xx. 173 The almost impossibly rigorous conditions of the emperors' breeding colonies. |
† II. 5. a. In the etymological sense
= ‘commander’.
b. Rom. Ant. As the rendering of L.
imperator in its republican sense (now replaced by the
Lat. word).
Obs.| c 1325 K. Alis. 1669 The messangers Buth y-come to heore emperis. 138. Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 290 Oure emperoure Crist Comaundiþ. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3670 Þai..ordant hym [Agamynon] Emperour by opyn assent. 1533 Bellenden Livy v. (1822) 439 [The] grete justice of thare emprioure Camillus. 1598 W. Phillips Linschoten's Trav. in Arb. Garner III. 23 The ships of an ancient custom, do use to choose an Emperor among themselves. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. i. iii. (1622) 5 [Augustus] had beene honored with the name of Emperour one and twenty times. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. xiv. 90 My Captaine, and my Emperor. 1741 Middleton Cicero II. vii. (1742) 193 Upon this success, Cicero was saluted Emperor. |
III. 6. attrib. and
Comb., as
emperor-king,
emperor-maker;
emperor-less,
emperor-like adjs. (and
adv.); also
† emperor-clerk, contemptuously for a lord-spiritual;
emperor fish, a brilliant-coloured food fish,
Holacanthus imperator;
emperor goose, a goose of Alaska,
Philacte canagica, having handsomely variegated plumage;
emperor-moth (
Saturnia pavonia minor);
emperor penguin, the largest of the penguin family,
Aptenodytes forsteri.
| 138. Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 437 Alle degrees of *emperor clerkis. ― Wks. (1880) 447 Of popis, ne of oþere emperour clerkis. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., Emperor of Japan... Also *emperor-fish. 1896 Lydekker R. Nat. Hist. V. 344 The splendidly-coloured emperor-fish (H[olacanthus] imperator)..ranges from the east coast of Africa to the Indian and Malayan seas. 1949 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. II. 373/2 The best-known [Butterfly-fish] is the Emperor Fish of Indian seas, a very gaudy fish, with its yellow stripes crossing a blue or brown body, and blue and white markings on head and fins. |
| 1872 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 283 Painted Goose. *Emperor Goose. Wavy bluish-gray, with lavender or lilac tinting. 1940 Gabrielson & Jewett Birds Oregon 129 The Emperor Geese usually arrive here as single birds mingling with other species or in small bands. |
| 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 60 The *emperor-king passed through Piedmont in triumph. |
| 1882 Athenæum 30 Dec. 879/2 The great-grand-nephew of the victor of Rossbach put an end..to the *emperor-less period. |
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 509/2 It is an *Emperour-like gouernance. 1601 Imp. Consid. Sec. Priests (1675) 54 Thus these great Emperour-like Jesuits do speak to her Majesty. c 1630 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 6 And emperourlike decore With diadem of pearl thy temples fair. |
| 1581 Savile Tacitus' Hist. i. xxx. (1591) 18 Prouide that the raskallest sort be no *Emperour-makers. |
| 1868 Wood Homes without H. xiv. 279 The cocoon of the common *Emperor Moth. |
| 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 492 ‘*Emperor’ and ‘King’ Penguins. 1895 Lydekker R. Nat. Hist. IV. 546 The king-penguin..and the still larger emperor-penguin. 1905 R. F. Scott Voy. ‘Discov.’ I. iv. 148 A small colony of Emperor penguins in process of moulting exhibited the most dishevelled appearance. 1959 New Biology XXIX. 107 The truly Antarctic birds are the Emperor and Adélie penguins and the southern forms of Antarctic skua. |
▪ II. ˈemperor, v. nonce-wd. [f. prec. n.] trans. To rule over as emperor or supreme head.
| 1855 Bailey Mystic 109 Seeking..Their own names, to the tribes each emperor'd, To magnify. |