dictatureEtymologyFrom Middle English dictature, from Middle French dictature and its etymon Classical Latin dictātūra. By surface analysis, dictate + -ure.nounOffice of a dictator; dictatorship.“The impressiveness of the aspect of Edinburgh to its visitors is thus not merely pictorial. […] See the hill-fort defended by lake and forest, becoming "castrum puellarum," becoming a Roman and an Arthurian citadel, a mediaeval stronghold of innumerable sieges, a centre of autocratic and military dictatures, oligarchic governments, at length a museum of the past.”