ukase

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Translations 1.3.2 See also 2 French 2.1 Alternative spellings 2.2 Etymology 2.3 Pronunciation 2.4 Noun 2.5 See also

[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

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

• decree
• edict
• Ukase on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ukaz in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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[edit] French

[edit] Alternative spellings

• oukase

[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

• IPA: y.kaz, SAMPA: y.kaz
•  Audio (Paris)^{help, file}

[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

• décret m.
• édit m.
• loi
• ordonannce