Also taikun. [ad. Jap. taikun great lord or prince, f. Chinese ta great + kiun prince.] The title by which the shogun of Japan was described to foreigners.
1863. Alcock (title), The Capital of the Tycoon: A narrative of a three years’ residence in Japan. Ibid., II. 491. The name by which this officer is commonly known is ‘the Tycoon of Japan.’
1875. W. E. Griffis, in N. Amer. Rev., CXX. 287. There never was but one emperor in Japan, the Shogun was military usurper, and the bombastic title ‘Tycoon’ a diplomatic fraud.
1881. Sir R. Alcock, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 584/2. The title of taikun (often misspelt tycoon) was then for the first time used; it … was employed for the occasion by the Tokugawa officials to convey the impression that their chief was in reality the lord paramount.
1887. L. Oliphant, Episodes (1888), 186. Soldiers of the Tycoon, or Temporal Emperor [of Japan], as he was then [1861], called.
Hence Tycoonate, the office or dignity of a tycoon or the tycoons; Tycoonism, the system of temporal government by the tycoon.
1863. Alcock, Capital Tycoon, I. v. 135. The ‘Tycoonat,’ created by the strong arm and determined will of Taikosama.
1876. E. W. Clark, Life Japan, 128. Shidz-u-o-ka … became the St. Helena of Tycoonism.
