Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An army commander in the Roman Republic.
- n. The supreme power of the Roman emperor.
- n. The head of state and supreme commander in the Roman Empire, in whose name all victories were won.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Roman history:
- n. In general, a commander, chief, or ruler: in this sense a descriptive title (placed after the name) of any one possessing the imperium or power of enforcing his authority, as a general, or a consul, proconsul, or other magistrate.
- n. In later times, more especially, a general-in-chief or holder of an independent command during active service: a title often conferred by the senate on a victorious general, or acclaimed by his army.
- n. After the fall of the republic, the official title (used as a prenomen) of the monarch or supreme ruler as permanent generalissimo of the Roman armies; emperor: originally conferred by the senate for a term, and afterward assumed in perpetuity.
- n. [capitalized] In zoology, a genus of trochiform prosobranchiate gastropods, of the family Turbinidæ. Montfort.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Rom. Antiq.) A commander; a leader; an emperor; -- originally an appellation of honor by which Roman soldiers saluted their general after an important victory. Subsequently the title was conferred as a recognition of great military achievements by the senate, whence it carried wiht it some special privileges. After the downfall of the Republic it was assumed by Augustus and his successors, and came to have the meaning now attached to the word
emperor .
Etymologies
- Latin imperātōr; see emperor. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Latin word imperator referred not only to a civilian ruler who interpreted and carried out the law but also to a victorious commander of one or more Roman legions.”
“He chafed against the implication of coercion in the word imperator: “We could more truly have been titled a protectorate than an empire of the world.””
“Anyone who cannot understand what rex imperator is saying and trying to point out needs to consider (if they are a police officer) whether they are suitable to continue in the office of constable on February 10, 2009 at 1: 04 pm | Reply Von Spreuth”
“It was the measure of his success, perhaps, that the word imperator "general" used during his reign should have evolved to mean something much more - our word "emperor".”
“In Latin, imperator means commander but it was a special title of honor, symbolizing the bond between a winning general and his men.”
“Emilius when the senate elected him imperator, that is, chief of the army which they sent against Perses, King of Macedon.”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“Those who are imperatores in the limited sense use the appellation once, as they do others, and indeed before others: whatever rulers in addition accomplish in war any deed worthy of it acquire also the name handed down by ancient custom, so that a man is termed imperator a second and a third time, and oftener, as frequently as he can bestow it upon himself.”
“To all these examples might be added what happened to L. Paulus Emilius when the senate elected him imperator, that is, chief of the army which they sent against Perses, King of Macedon.”
“Dr. Simon says, "The major problem with the Beta III is its long thin 'imperator' shape, in contrast to the short broad roots grown everywhere else in the world but in the U.S.A.”
“Three points of the utmost significance demand attention in this, a typical deliverance of the "imperator," uttered at the flood-tide of imperial success: two of them, both negative, are ominous; the third is positive and plain.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘imperator’.
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POL - people in power
daredevil, tzar, king, boss, master, commander, chief, kingpin, top banana, bigwig, big cheese, big wheel and 452 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Roman Magistracy
List of Roman government and military officials, offices, and bodies. No attempt is made to distinguish between different periods of the empire's history.
The cursus honorum, or, the c...interrex, quaestor, curule aedile, praetor, consul, censor, proconsul, praetor peregrinus, praetor urbanus, propraetor, plebeian aedile, vigintisexviri and 33 more...
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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Tulip Names I
No rhyme or reason other than that I like the names. :-) For more flower fun, see these lists:
Rose words by mollusque
Rose varieties by mollusque
Tulip Names II: You Know ...abbey dream, abbey road, abodement, abra, abra elite, academician tstisin, acapulco, ace of diamonds, acropolis, ad hoc, adamo, addis and 597 more...
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Honorifics
emperor, empress, king, queen, monarch, prince, princess, admiral, general, herald, warden, patriarch and 68 more...
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participation
parade, pare, parlay, parry, parure, apparatus, apparel, comprador, disparate, emperor, imperative, imperator and 86 more...
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Noblesse Oblige
Noble, leadership and ranking titles.
voivod, vavasour, duke, count, earl, herzog, viscount, khan, viceroy, czar, castellan, châtelain and 43 more...
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it's good to be king
or sultana or mogul or...
rulers of the worldruler, regent, regina, king, queen, dowager, empress, emperor, imperator, caesar, pharoh, maharaja and 21 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for imperator.
jaime_d From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport Jan 18, 2010