Ukase
WordNet
noun
(1) An edict of the Russian tsar
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From < Old Russian указъ (edict) < указат (ukazat, "to show, decree") < Old Church Slavonic указатъ (ukazati, "to show, decree"), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- (denoting a concrete purpose) + казатъ (kazati, "to show, order); cognate with Dutch oekaze, German Ukas, etc.
Noun
- An authoritative proclamation; an edict, especially decreed by a Russian czar or (later) emperor.
- 1805,
- An Ukase, it appears, has been issued by the Emperor Alexander, to facilitate the introduction of calimancoes and other Norwich goods into his Empire.
- 1965, John Fowles,
- I knew a stunned plunge of disappointment and a bitter anger. What right had he to issue such an arbitrary ukase?
- 2008, Stephen Burt, "Kick Over the Scenery",
- It is a short step from discovering that the world we know is a fake or a cheat to discovering that human beings are themselves factitious: that we are robots, ‘simulacra’ (the title of one of Dick’s novels), ‘just reflex machines’, ‘repeating doomed patterns, a single pattern, over and over’ in accordance with biological or economic ukases.
Etymology
From < Old Russian указъ (edict) < указат (ukazat, "to show, decree") < Old Church Slavonic указатъ (ukazati, "to show, decree"), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- (denoting a concrete purpose) + казатъ (kazati, "to show, order).
Noun
- An ukase, decree from a Russian absolutist ruler.
- Any absolute or arrogant order