The roots of the word tyranny are at the heart of the name of that famous dinosaur T-Rex.
Today's podictionary word brought to you by GoToMeeting. Try it free for 45 days by following the link www.gotomeeting.com/podcasts Tyrannosaurus rex literally translates as “tyrant lizard king” since rex means “king.” Obviously thundering around and eating your neighbors qualifies as being a tyrant. One of the earliest English appearances of the word tyranny was in Chaucer's poem Anelida and Arcite ; Chaucer being far more famous for his Canterbury Tales . In Anelida and Arcite he refers to the tyranny of a fellow named Creon, who in a power vacuum after a battle in ancient Greece has seized the throne of the city of Thebes and forbids the burying of the dead.
But it isn't just the injunction against burials that makes him a tyrant, one of the ancient meanings of the word tyrant is a ruler who illegally takes power. The more recognizable modern meaning of tyrant carries a sense of abuse of power and oppressive rule, so old Creon fits on both counts.
The fact that Chaucer uses a Greek tale is appropriate because English got tyrant and tyranny from French who got it from Latin who in turn got it from ancient Greek. But way back there in ancient Greek tyrannos didn't necessarily mean abusive and oppressive rule; at first it only meant “king” or “master.” It is a measure of how true the truism is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That little gem of wisdom appeared in a letter in 1887 written by the English historian John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton known to his friends and admirers as Baron Acton.
Here's the exact quote in a little more context: “I cannot accept … that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men… There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” But the word tyrant had taken on a negative tone before 1887. Even by the time it got into Latin it meant that power had been acquired illegally.
We do have an earlier English example relating the corrupting force of power to tyranny ; that was in 1770 so hardly as far back as ancient Greek.
What had happened was that a newspaper had published an article critical of King George III. The paper's founder John Wilkes was turfed out of his seat in Parliament and tossed in jail. The electorate kept on voting him back into office but King George kept declaring his election null and void. Eventually William Pitt rose in the House of Lords to defend freedom of speech. In part he said “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it; and this I know, my Lords, that where law ends, there tyranny begins.”
