Etymology

czar

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Today it means: An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area. Full definition →

Russian царь (carʹ) ← Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ) ← Proto-Slavic *cěsařь
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The story

  1. LatinCaesar
  2. Proto-Germanic*kaisaraz
  3. Proto-Slavic*cěsařь
  4. Old East Slavicцѣсарь (cěsarĭ)
  5. Old East Slavicцьсарь (cĭsarĭ)
  6. Russianцарь (carʹ)
  7. English todayczar

See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from the book Notes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) by Sigismund von Herberstein. It was supplanted by the alternative tsar in the 19th century.

Words from the same roots

Russianцарь all →

tsar

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.