dictator

• dictatour (obsolete)

From Latin dictātor (“a chief magistrate”), from dictō (“dictate, prescribe”), from dīcō (“say, speak”).

Surface analysis is dictate +‎ -or “one who dictates”.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪkˈteɪtə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪkteɪtəɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

dictator (plural dictators)

1. A totalitarian leader of a country, nation, or government.
   • 2019, (Existential Comics), 29 January, 9:27 AM Tweet:

     Dictator, noun : someone who doesn't let American CEOs dictate how their country is run

2. (history) A magistrate without colleague in republican Ancient Rome, who held full executive authority for a term granted by the senate (legislature), typically to conduct a war.
3. A tyrannical boss or authority figure.
4. A person who dictates text (e.g. letters to a clerk).

Borrowed from Latin dictātor.

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɪkˈtaː.tɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dic‧ta‧tor
• Rhymes: -aːtɔr

dictator m (plural dictatoren or dictators, diminutive dictatortje n)

1. dictator (tyrant, despot)

   Synonyms: despoot, dwingeland, tiran

2. (historical) dictator (Roman magistrate with expanded powers)

From dictō (“I dictate”) +‎ -tor.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /dikˈtaː.tor/, [d̪ɪkˈt̪äːt̪ɔr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /dikˈta.tor/, [d̪ikˈt̪äːt̪or]

dictātor m (genitive dictātōris); third declension

1. an elected chief magistrate
2. one who dictates.

Third-declension noun.

• “dictator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dictator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dictator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• dictator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to name a person dictator: dictatorem dicere (creare)
    
  • a dictator appoints a magister equitum: dictator dicit (legit) magistrum equitum
    
• “dictator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “dictator”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Borrowed from French dictateur, Latin dictātor. Equivalent to dicta +‎ -tor.

dictator m (plural dictatori)

1. dictator