"an emperor, a ruler, a dictator," late 14c.,
cesar
, from
Cæsar
, originally a surname of the Julian gens in Rome, elevated to a title after Caius Julius
Caesar
(100 B.C.E.-44 B.C.E.) became dictator; it was used as a title of emperors down to Hadrian (138 C.E.). The name is of uncertain origin; Pliny derives it from
caesaries
"head of hair," because the future dictator was born with a full one; Century Dictionary suggests Latin
caesius
"bluish-gray" (of the eyes), also used as a proper name. Also compare
caesarian
.
Old English had
casere
, which would have yielded modern
*coser
, but it was replaced in Middle English by
keiser
(c. 1200), from Norse or Low German, and later by the French or Latin form of the name.
Cæsar
also is the root of German
Kaiser
and Russian
tsar
(see
czar
). He competes as progenitor of words for "king" with Charlemagne (Latin
Carolus
), as in Lithuanian
karalius
, Polish
krol
.
The use in reference to "temporal power as the object of obedience" (contrasted with
God
) is from Matthew xxii.21.
Caesar's wife
(1570s) as the figure of a person who should be above suspicion is from Plutarch. In U.S. slang c. 1900, a sheriff was
Great Seizer
.