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

[Chris Zakes]

At 10:08 PM 10/25/2009, you wrote:

Tivar:
> >>> 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.)

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

Ioannes:
> >>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'.

Robin: (Is everyone keeping up? There may be a quiz later.)
>True, but we don't speak Greek.

*We* may not speak Greek, but an educated person in the Middle Ages 
or Renaissance probably would (along with Latin and the language of 
their homeland.)

         -Tivar Moondragon