Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Ethnarch
/ˈɛθnɑːrk/noun
A ruler over an ethnic group rather than a territory, a rank below king.
The Greek roots
ἔθνος
éthnos
nation, people
ἄρχω
árkhō
to rule, lead
Literally: “ruler of a people”
The story of the word
Rome used the title to demote without deposing: Herod Archelaus inherited Judea but was given ethnarch instead of king, and lost even that within a decade. The Ottomans revived the arrangement, making the Patriarch of Constantinople answerable for the whole Orthodox population of the empire, taxes included. ἔθνος meant a group living together, and in the plural τὰ ἔθνη became the biblical gentiles, the nations other than Israel.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
ethnicethnographymonarchexarch
In a sentence
As ethnarch he collected taxes from his own people and answered to a foreign governor.