Also 7 zarr, czaar, czarr, ksar, 8– tzar. [Romanized spellings of Russ. царь (= tsari), in Bulg. цар, king, sovereign emperor, Serv. цар, emperor, Croatian, Boh., Pol. car (= tsar, с in the Roman Slavonic orthography = ц in Cyrillic, being pronounced ts or German z). The Russian form is reduced from earlier (11th c.) цьсарь (tsisari) = OSlav. цѣсарь (tsêsari), in oblique cases цьсар- (tsisar-), ‘Cæsar, emperor, βασιλεύς, king,’ also (in latter senses) царь. (In Russian, the full form цесарь is retained in the sense ‘Cæsar’ and ‘(ancient Roman) emperor’; cf. Serv. цесар applied to the German emperor, while цар is the Russian tsar and the Sultan.
The Slav. word ultimately represents L. Cæsar, but came, according to Miklosich, through the medium of a Germanic lang. in which the word had the general sense ‘emperor’: cf. Goth. kaisar, OHG. keisar, OLG. kêsar, ON. keysari, whence also Finnish keisari, Esth. keiser, keisri. For the change of Germanic k to c = ts in Slav., cf. CHURCH. The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages; the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whence it passed into the Western Languages generally; in some of these it is now old-fashioned; the usual Ger. form is now zar, and French has recently adopted tsar, which is also becoming frequent in English, and has been adopted by the Times newspaper, as the most suitable English spelling.]
The title of the autocrat or emperor of Russia; historically, borne also by Servian rulers of the 14th c., as the Tsar Stephen Dushan.
In Russia it was partially used by the Grand Duke Ivan III., 1462–1505, and by his son Basil or Vasiliī, but was formally assumed by Ivan IV. in 1547. According to Herberstein its actual sense in Russian was ‘king,’ but it was gradually taken as = ‘emperor,’ a sense which it had in other Slavonic languages. Peter the Great introduced the title imperator ‘emperor,’ and the official style is now ‘Emperor of all the Russias, Tsar of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland’; but the Russian popular appellation is still tsar.
1555. Eden, Decades, 290. [trans. Herberstein] Wheras now this prince is cauled an Emperour, I haue thought good to shewe the tytle, and the cause of this error. Note therefore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (Hakluyt Soc.), 26. Sometimes [there is a] quarrell betwixt them and the Tartar and Poland ambassadours, who refuse to call him czar, that is emperour.
1662. J. Davies, Voy. Ambass., 95. The word Czaar signifies King, which may be seen in their Bible, where the Muscovites, speaking of David and his successors … they call them Czaars.
1667. Evelyn, Diary, 28 Aug. He [the Russian Envoy] deliver’d his speech in the Russe language aloud … half of it consisted in repetition of the Zarr’s titles.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 394. The Russian Ksar In Mosco.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 194. The czar at the commencement of the war was in the wrong.
1890. Morfill, Russia, 56. Ivan assuming the cognizance of the double-headed eagle and partially taking the title of Tsar, the complete assumption of it being the achievement of Ivan IV.
1893. Times, 31 July, 5/5. Accident to the Tsar’s yacht, the Tsarevna.
