czar

Meaning

Noun

• Alternate spelling of tsar
• An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.

Origin

• See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from Sigismund von Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii ("Notes on Muscovite Affairs") of 1549. The alternative tsar began to replace it in the 19th century.