despot means A ruler with absolute power; a tyrant. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.
despot is pronounced /ˈdɛs.pɒt/.
Why “despot” is a great word
A ruler who exercises absolute power, often in a cruel or oppressive manner. Its etymology binds it to the household: from Middle French despote, from Medieval Latin despota, from Ancient Greek δεσπότης (despótēs, "lord, master of a household"), from PIE *dems-pota- ("house-master"), first attested in English in the 1560s. Unlike "tyrant," which stresses the unjust seizure of power, or the neutral "autocrat," "despot" marries absolute authority to a specific character of oppression. It is the unblinking eye of the portrait in the hall, the heavy silence in a palace corridor, and the perfectly polished boot resting upon the neck of a realm—the domestic cruelty of a master who treats a country as his private house.
Etymology
From Middle French despote, from Old French despote, from Medieval Latin despota, from Ancient Greek δεσπότης (despótēs, “lord, master, owner”). Cognate with Sanskrit दम्पति (dámpati).
noun
- A ruler with absolute power; a tyrant.“The Red Holocaust is best interpreted in this light as the bitter fruit of an^([sic]) utopian gambit that was socially misengineered into a dystopic nightmare by despots in humanitarian disguise.”
- A title awarded to senior members of the imperial family in the late Byzantine Empire, and claimed by various independent or semi-autonomous rulers in the Balkans (12th to 15th centuries)