[Ansteorra] "Autocrat" (was: found keys at BG30)

[Jay Rudin]

>>> But "autocrat" is a perfectly valid word, not something made up. (Although
>>> it's post-period; the Oxford English Dictionary only dates it to 1803.)

True, but it dates many versions to the eighteenth century, and one form back to the middle of the seventeenth.

>>Maybe it's post period in English, but to me it's a perfectly good
>>Anglicization of the period word Autokrator, which is the Greek
>>translation of the Latin title Imperator.  Literally, 'self-ruler' or
>>'one who rules alone'.

True, but we don't speak Greek.  More importantly, using a Greek word that means "one who rules alone" for the person who sets up the event where the Crown or Baron / Baroness rules isn't a transliteration -- it's a falsehood.  

>Interesting. I'm a little surprised that the OED didn't mention the 
>earlier roots.

It does, of course.  The French and Greek roots are clearly described.  But it remains the Oxford *English* Dictionary, and correctly lists the first written use of "autocrat" in English yet found as 1803.

It also gives shows:
autocracy 1655
autocratical 1801
autocrator 1789-96
autocratoric 1678
autocratress 1762
autocratrice 1767
autocratrix 1762 

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

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