From Greek 'despotes' (master), likely PIE *dem-s-pot- (house-master) — originally neutral, turned pejorative by the Enlightenment.
Definition
A ruler who holds absolute power, typically one who exercises it in a cruel or oppressive way. A tyrant.
The Full Story
Greek16th centurywell-attested
From Greek 'despotēs' (δεσπότης, master of a household, lord, absolute ruler), from Proto-Indo-European *dem-s-pot- (house-master), a compound of *dem- (house, household, to build) + *poti- (powerful, lord, master, ruler). ThePIE compound is exact: the 'despot' is the 'house-lord,' the master of the domestic domain. The same compound formation appears in Sanskrit
Did you know?
In Byzantine Greek, 'despotēs' was a perfectly respectable title — it was used for the emperor, for Christ ('Despota' in prayers), and later for rulers of semi-independent provinces (the 'Despotate of Morea,' the 'Despotate of Epirus'). Thesameword that modern English uses as an insult was, in Byzantine Greek, an honorific. The pejorative shift happened largely during the French Enlightenment, when Montesquieu used 'despotisme' to describe Asian