caesar

< /ˈkeɪ əs/Julius,c100–44 b.c., Roman general, statesman, and historian.

Sidney,Sid, 1922–2014, U.S. comedian.

a title of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Hadrian, and later of the heirs presumptive.

any emperor.

a tyrant or dictator.

any temporal ruler, in contrast with God; the civil authority. Matt. 22:21.

a male given name: from a Roman family name.

Latin.

1. either a Caesar or nothing; all or nothing.

noun

1. Gaius Julius (ˈɡaɪəs ˈdʒuːlɪəs). 100–44 bc, Roman general, statesman, and historian. He formed the first triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus (60), conquered Gaul (58–50), invaded Britain (55–54), mastered Italy (49), and defeated Pompey (46). As dictator of the Roman Empire (49–44) he destroyed the power of the corrupt Roman nobility. He also introduced the Julian calendar and planned further reforms, but fear of his sovereign power led to his assassination (44) by conspirators led by Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus
2. any Roman emperor
3. (sometimes not capital) any emperor, autocrat, dictator, or other powerful ruler
4. a title of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Hadrian
5. (in the Roman Empire)
   1. a title borne by the imperial heir from the reign of Hadrian
   2. the heir, deputy, and subordinate ruler to either of the two emperors under Diocletian’s system of government
6. short for Caesar salad

c.1200, see caesarian; Old English had casere, which would have yielded modern *coser, but it was replaced in Middle English by keiser, from Norse or Low German, and later in Middle English by the French or Latin form of the name. Cæsar was used as a title of emperors down to Hadrian (138 C.E.), and 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. In U.S. slang c.1900, a sheriff was Great Seizer.

The family name of Julius Caesar and of the next eleven rulers of Rome, who were emperors.