ukase

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See also oekaze, oucase, and Ukas

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[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From Russian указ (edict, decree) < Old Russian указъ (edict) < указат (ukazat, "to show, decree") < Old Church Slavonic указатъ (ukazati, "to show, decree"), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- (denoting a concrete purpose) + казатъ (kazati, "to show, order); cognate with Dutch oekaze, German Ukas, etc.

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ju:'keɪz/

[edit] Noun

Singular
ukase

Plural
ukases

ukase (plural ukases)

  1. An authoritative proclamation; an edict, especially decreed by a Russian czar or (later) emperor.
    • 1805, The Times, 6 May 1805, page 3, col. C:
      An Ukase, it appears, has been issued by the Emperor Alexander, to facilitate the introduction of calimancoes and other Norwich goods into his Empire.
  2. (figuratively) Any absolutist order and/or arrogant proclamation
    • 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:
      I knew a stunned plunge of disappointment and a bitter anger. What right had he to issue such an arbitrary ukase?
  3. (figuratively) An absolute, inescapable law, as those of nature
    • 2008, Stephen Burt, "Kick Over the Scenery", London Review of Books, July 2008:
      It is a short step from discovering that the world we know is a fake or a cheat to discovering that human beings are themselves factitious: that we are robots, ‘simulacra’ (the title of one of Dick’s novels), ‘just reflex machines’, ‘repeating doomed patterns, a single pattern, over and over’ in accordance with biological or economic ukases.

[edit] Translations

[edit] See also


[edit] French

[edit] Alternative spellings

[edit] Etymology

From Russian указ (edict, decree) < Old Russian указъ (edict) < указат (ukazat, "to show, decree") < Old Church Slavonic указатъ (ukazati, "to show, decree"), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- (denoting a concrete purpose) + казатъ (kazati, "to show, order).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

ukase m. (plural ukases)

  1. An ukase, decree from a Russian absolutist ruler.
  2. (figuratively) Any absolute or arrogant order

[edit] See also