Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The English noun tyrant appears in Middle English use, via Old French, from the 1290s.The word derives from Latin tyrannus, meaning "illegitimate ruler", and this in turn from the Greek τύραννος tyrannos "monarch, ruler of a polis"; tyrannos in its turn has a Pre-Greek origin, perhaps from Lydian.
Meaning in English Origin language Etymology (root origin) English examples tac-, -tic-be silent: ... tyranny, tyrant References
In social choice, a tyranny-of-the-majority scenario can be formally defined as a situation where the candidate or decision preferred by a majority is greatly inferior (hence "tyranny") to the socially optimal candidate or decision according to some measure of excellence such as total utilitarianism or the egalitarian rule.
Plato describes a violent tyrant as the opposite of a good and "true king" in the Statesman, [6] and while Aristotle in the Politics sees it as opposed to all other beneficial forms of government, he also described tyrannicide mainly as an act by those wishing to gain personally from the tyrant's death, while those who act without hope of personal gain or to make a name for themselves are rare.
Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants". In contemporary parlance, it means tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown. The phrase also suggests that bad but justified outcomes should, or eventually will, befall tyrants. It is the state motto of the U.S. state of Virginia.
Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to mob rule or mobocracy, which was coined in the 18th century from the sense of "mob" meaning the common rabble that arose from the Latin phrase mobile vulgus ("the fickle crowd") in the 1680s during disputes over the United Kingdom's Glorious Revolution.
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. [1] [2] In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as one's own. [3]
The best known example is the British House of Lords, which includes a number of hereditary peers. The House of Lords is a vestige of the aristocratic system that once predominated in British politics, while the other house, the House of Commons, is entirely elected. Over the years, some have proposed reforms to the House of Lords, some of ...