▪ I. tetrarch, n.
(ˈtɛt-, ˈtiːtrɑːk)
Forms: 4 tetrarke, 5 -arche, 5– tetrarch; also 4–6 in L. form tetrarcha.
[ad. late L. tetrarcha (Vulgate), cl. L. tetrarchēs, a. Gr. τετράρχης, f. τετρα- four- + -αρχης ruling, ruler. Cf. F. tétrarque (13th c.).]
1. Rom. Hist. The ruler of one of four divisions of a country or province; at a later period applied to subordinate rulers generally, esp. in Syria.
| [c 1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 299 Quadrans on lyden on grecisc ys ᵹecweden tetrarcha.] 1382 Wyclif Matt. xiv. 1 Eroude tetrarcha [gloss that is, prince of the fourthe part; 1388 tetrarke], herde the fame of Jhesu. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 233 He and his breþer were made tetrarches, as hauenge the iiijthe parte of a realm, from proctors. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. iv. (1520) 28/1 The Emperoure..the halfe of the Iury and Idumea gaue to Archylaus vnder name of Tetrache. 1526 Tindale Matt. xiv. 1 Herod the tetrarcha. 1611 B. Jonson Catiline i. i, All the earth, Her kings, and tetrarchs, are their tributaries. 1718 Rowe tr. Lucan vii. 334 Kings and Tetrarchs proud, a purple Train. 1877 C. Geikie Christ lx. (1879) 735 The tetrarch Antipas had come up from Tiberias, to show how devoutly he honoured the law. |
2. transf. and fig. a. A ruler of a fourth part, or of one of four parts, divisions, elements, etc.; also a subordinate ruler generally.
| 1610 Histrio-m. ii. 19 For this aboundance pour'd at Plenties feet You shall be Tetrarchs of this petty world. 1651 Davenant Gondibert Pref. 45 The heads of the Church (where ever Christianity is preach'd) are Tetrarchs of Time; of which they command the fourth Division. 1671 Milton P.R. iv. 201 If I..have propos'd What both from Men and Angels I receive, Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth Nations besides. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 307 It is not to the Tetrarch of Sardinia..that we mean to prove [etc.]. |
| attrib. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xxi. 209 Men in whose constitutions one of the tetrarch Elements, fire, may seem to be omitted. |
b. One of four joint rulers, directors, or heads.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Cornw. (1662) i. 213 This was he who was one of the first four Tetrarchs or Joint-managers in chief of Marshall matters in Cornwall. 1902 Baring in Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 496/2 The Parnassian school [had] as their tetrarchs and judges Théophile Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, Baudelaire, and Banville. |
3. a. The commander of a subdivision of an ancient Greek phalanx. (The quot. may belong here or to sense 1.)
| 1846 Landor Imag. Conv., Scipio, Polyb., & Pan. (1853) 351 His bringing into the front of the center, as became some showy tetrarch rather than Hannibal, his eighty elephants. |
b. In Fourier's social organization: A ruler of the fourth (ascending) rank.
| 1848 Tait's Mag. XV. 706 There will be duarchs for four phalanx, triarchs for 12, tetrarchs for 48. |
▪ II. ˈtetrarch, a. Bot.
[f. tetra- + Gr. ἀρχή beginning.]
Proceeding from four distinct points of origin: cf. diarch.
| 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 363 Triarch and tetrarch bundles sometimes occur in thick roots of species which are usually diarch. Ibid. 354 In the case of diarch and tetrarch structure of the main root. Ibid., The phloem-groups of triarch and tetrarch roots of Papilionaceæ. 1895 Vines Students' Text-bk. Bot. 179 The stele may have—in different structures—one to many protoxylem (primitive wood) groups, and is accordingly described as monarch..diarch..triarch..tetrarch..polyarch. 1900 W. Wallace in Ann. Bot. Dec. 643 The tetrarch or triarch root [of Actinostemma] has no pith and..no internal phloem. |