What is a tyrant person?

What is a tyrant person?

1 : a ruler who has no legal limits on his or her power. 2 : a ruler who exercises total power harshly and cruelly. 3 : a person who uses authority or power harshly My boss is a real tyrant.

What did a tyrant do?

tyrant, Greek tyrannos, a cruel and oppressive ruler or, in ancient Greece, a ruler who seized power unconstitutionally or inherited such power. Thus, the opportunity arose for ambitious men to seize power in the name of the oppressed.

What does tyrant mean in government?

1 : an act or the pattern of harsh, cruel, and unfair control over other people. 2 : a government in which all power is in the hands of a single ruler. More from Merriam-Webster on tyranny.

What does a tyrant act like?

Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to repressive means. The philosophers Plato and Aristotle defined a tyrant as a person who rules without law, using extreme and cruel methods against both his own people and others.

What does tyrant mean Greece?

A tyrant (from Ancient Greek τύραννος, tyrannos), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler’s sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to repressive means.

How was tyranny practiced in ancient Greece?

Tyrants became known for holding power through cruel and unfair methods. From about 650 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E., people in some Greek city-states looked to men who claimed that they wanted to overthrow kings or oligarchs and to make life better for the people.

What is the etymology of the word tyrant?

Etymology. The English noun tyrant appears in Middle English use, via Old French, from the 1290s. The word derives from Latin tyrannus, meaning “illegitimate ruler”, and this in turn from the Greek τύραννος tyrannos “monarch, ruler of a polis”; tyrannos in its turn has a Pre-Greek origin, perhaps from Lydian.