justiciar
/d͡ʒʌsˈtɪsi.ɑː(ɹ)/
justiciar means one who administers justice; A high-ranking judicial officer of medieval England or Scotland. It carries an Arena rating of 1529, earned across 65 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, justiciar ranks #747 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,720 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #5,691 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #6,177 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
justiciar is pronounced /d͡ʒʌsˈtɪsi.ɑː(ɹ)/.
Why “justiciar” is a great word
JUSTICIAR — [Noun] A high-ranking judicial and political officer, especially the chief justice and viceroy of medieval England. From Late Latin *justitiarius* and *justiciarius* ("judge, justice"), from Latin *iūstitia* ("justice") + *-ārius* ("-ary"). Unlike "judge," a general term for a courtroom arbiter, or "magistrate," denoting a lower civil officer, a justiciar was the king's other self, wielding supreme administrative, fiscal, and legal authority. It is the seal pressed into cooling wax on a royal writ, the silhouette of a mounted retinue against the sky of the Welsh Marches, and the patient, implacable logic of the Exchequer's rolls—the grim, necessary machinery of law made flesh and given a single, heavy hand.
Etymology
From Late Latin justitiarius and justiciarius (“justiciar, judge, justice [of the peace]; judiciary, related to justice”), from Latin iūstitia (“justice”) + -āria (“-ary”). As a translation of various Continental European offices, via Middle French justicier, Spanish justiciero, justicia mayor, etc.
noun
- One who administers justice; A high-ranking judicial officer of medieval England or Scotland.
- One who administers justice; A justice: a high-ranking judge.
- One who administers justice; A Chief Justiciar: the highest political and judicial officer of the Kingdom of England in the 12th and 13th centuries.
- One who administers justice; Various equivalent medieval offices elsewhere in Europe.
- A justiciary: a believer in the doctrine (or heresy) that adherence to religious law redeems mankind before God.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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