Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks
Our city decided to appoint two individuals who are in charge of coordinating rescue efforts during the crisis, one of whom she announced this morning. Great idea, but what on earth was she thinking calling them "Czars?" Of all the terms to use for an authority figure, our county judge chooses a title that means an "an emperor-the ruler of Russia before the 1917 revolution." Strange.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/l...onavirus-czar/ |
Yes, I first heard the word used in US English only a couple of years ago, and was quite surprised by it. It is funny that it denotes a position of authority of someone appointed in the time of crisis or someone to solve a specific set of problems, and is in fact of a temporary nature. Quite opposite of what tzar or czar actually means / emperor derived from Latin: caesar, German word: Kaiser. In my language it is car, pronounced as tzar. It is an inherited and lifetime position, implying absolute power. So, perhaps this part of its meaning, that implies a huge authority, disproportionally larger than it would be in other non-crisis situations, even if temporary, is the reason why this word has its renaissance.
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