Dictator (pronounced dik-tey-ter)
(1) A person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler
who (at least ostensibly) has absolute control (ie effectively not restricted
by a constitution, laws, recognized opposition, etc) in a government (and
officially without hereditary succession); applied particularly to those
exercising tyrannical rule.
(2) In republican ancient Rome, a person vested by the
senate with supreme authority during a crisis, the regular magistracy being
subordinated to him until the crisis was met (typically by conducting a war).
(3) A person who makes pronouncements, as on conduct,
fashion etc, which are regarded as authoritative.
(4) A person who dictates text to someone or some sort or
mechanical or electronic recording device.
(5) In Ancient Rome (during certain periods), an elected
chief magistrate.
1350–1400: From the Middle English dictatour, from the Old French dictator, from the Latin dictātor (genitive dictātōris), (Roman chief magistrate with absolute authority) the
construct being dictā(re) (inflection of dictō (I repeat, say often; I dictate (to someone for writing))),
frequentative of dicere (to say,
speak); I compose, express in writing; I prescribe, recommend, order, dictate))
frequentative of dicere (to say,
speak)" (from the primitive Indo-European root deik- (to show (also "solemnly to pronounce") (and
related to dīcō (say, speak) + -tor (from the Proto-Italic -tōr, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr from -tor-s; the suffix added to the fourth principal part of a verb to
create a third-declension masculine form of an agent noun). The feminine forms were dictatress or
dictatrix, both probably now obsolete except in historic reference or as a
jocular form; the old alternative spelling dictatour is obsolete. Some European languages (including Dutch and
Romanian) were like English and borrowed directly the Latin spelling while
others used variations including Catalan (dictador),
French (dictateur) Italian (dittatore), Piedmontese (ditator), Polish (dyktator), Portuguese (ditador),
Russian (дикта́тор (diktátor)), Sicilian
(dittaturi), Spanish (dictador) and German (Diktator). Dictator is a noun, dictatorially is an
adverb and dictatorial is an adjective; the noun plural is dictators.
The noun dictatorship (office or term of a (Roman)
dictator) came into use in the 1610s to describe the historically specific terms
of office the Roman senate sometimes granted individuals in extraordinary and
reprehensible circumstances while the now familiar general sense of "a
ruler exercising absolute authority" evolved by the late seventeenth
century. The noun dictator had already proceeded
along this path, the historical sense being the first used in English circa
1600, the extension to “one who has absolute power or authority" (in any
context and not just political power) noted by the 1690s. The nasty and not infrequently genocidal
nature of some of the dictators of the twentieth century and beyond certainly
influenced the understanding of the word which, as late as the 1800s could be used
neutrally, effectively as a synonym for president.
The adjective dictatorial (pertaining to a dictator;
absolute, unlimited), dating from 1901 evolved also to enjoy use outside of
descriptors of absolute government and by 1704 had acquired the general sense
of "imperious, overbearing", usefully (and often applied as required
to husbands, mothers-in-law, parish priests et al; the related for was the
adverb dictatorially. In that vein, to
convey the notion of "pertaining to a dictator" there had been dictatorian (1640s) & dictator-like
(1580s). Etymologists insist the dictatorial’s
historic duality of implication (1) a disposition to rule and (2) a sharp
insistence upon having one's orders accepted or carried out has survived in
modern use but instances of the former are now probably rare.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government
1933-1945 and of state 1934-1945) is of course the dictator who for decades
has loomed over the word and “Hitler” was used figuratively for "a
dictator" from as early as 1934, a use which has persisted despite there
being no shortage of dictatorial tyrants in the years since his assumption of
power. One amusing variation emerged in
England in the early years of the Second World War (1939-1945), a “little
Hitler” being someone appointed to a minor post (archetypically someone
employed to walk the streets during a “black-out” telling folk to extinguish
their lights) and, cloaked in this brief, unaccustomed authority, soon intoxicated
by their power. In
post-revolutionary (1979-) Iran, the regime encouraged a similar put-down aimed
at opponents, the US being شيطان بزرگ (Shaytân-e Bozorg
(the great Satan)) and Israel شیطان کوچک, (Shaytân-e Kuchak
(the little Satan)) and it’s even worse than it sounds because “great” is not
the perfect translation, the idea of the great Satan being one of derision rather than
awe. When the Ayatollahs are in a bad
mood (which does happens), sometimes the UK is also described as a “little Satan”.
Because of the evil of Hitler and his many spiritual successors
in this century and the last, dictator really doesn’t cry out for synonyms but autocrat,
despot, tyrant, absolutist, authoritarian, oppressor & totalitarian all
tend in the direction. Historically, the
closest is probably the noun generalissimo (supreme military commander), dating
from the 1620s and a borrowing of the Italian generalissimo, superlative of generale,
from a sense development similar to the French general. However, despite the title being used by the dictators
comrade Stalin and General Franco, it’s never come into use as a general
descriptor in the manner of dictator.
1935 Studebaker Dictator phaeton (left) & 1936 Studebaker Dictator sedan (right).
The Studebaker Dictator
was produced between 1927-1937 and was part of a naming scheme which used
titles from government service to indicate a car’s place in the hierarchy,
the Dictator replacing the Standard Six
as the entry-level model, the progressively more expensive being the Commander
and President. Briefly (only for
1927) there was also the Chancellor but,
presumably because it wasn’t a title which much resonated in the American imagination,
it was short- lived. Other manufacturers
have adopted a similar idea, Opal once also merging admiralty and political
ranks, offering the Kapitän, Commodore, Admiral & Diplomat.
Some of the opposition to crooked Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016 accused her of wanting to turn the US into a dictatorship. That was hyperbolic because, although it may have been what she wanted, the US constitution would make it almost impossible to achieve. The meme makers responded with agitprop.It probably now seems strange a US manufacturer would
call one of its products the Dictator
but in 1927 the Nazis were years from power and Mussolini, in office since
1922 was far from the tainted character he would later become and the public
perception of his rule was still at the stage of admiring him for “making the
trains run on time” (although it’s thought unlikely any improvements in punctuality
were noted by many). Studebaker anyway
had always explained the name as suggesting “a fine car at a
moderate price” that would “dictate the standards” for the mid-priced field. That was fair enough but in hindsight, when
the option of a straight-eight engine was offered as an upgrade from the straight-six,
Studebaker probably would not to have used the marketing slogan “a
brilliant example of excess power”. By
1937, the use of excess power by the Third Reich’s dictator was becoming obvious and Studebaker quietly dropped the Dictator
name for 1938, re-positioning the Commander
as the base model, the cars exported to the Europe, the UK and the British
Empire having early been renamed Director. With those changes, probably just about everyone
except Henry Ford approved.
So Studebaker’s tale is an example of how the shifting
meaning of words can influence many things.
Still, even if in 1937 any association with Hitler had become
distasteful for a US corporation, even by 1940, some two years after the Nazi’s
most publicized pogrom against the Jews (Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass)), Charlie Chaplin, 1889–1977) released his satirical comedy
The Great Dictator which parodied both dictators (Hitler and Mussolini), his argument
being that however controversial it might be, “…Hitler must be laughed
at." He later admitted that had he
known in 1940 what would later be understood, he’d never have produced the
film.
The Hijab Police
Of the many “morality police” forces which have existed in countries with a majority Islamic population, the best known was Afghanistan's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice which actually pre-dated the Taliban takeover in 1996 but they certainly deployed it with an enthusiasm which went much beyond it functioning as “burka police” and in one form or another, it actually operated for most of the (first) post-Taliban era. When the Taliban regained power in 2021, immediately they created the "Ministry of Invitation, Guidance and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" and, in a nice touch, allocated as its headquarters the building formerly used by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The institution is infamous also in Iran. In the West, it’s usually referred to as the “morality
police” and among women the sardonic slang is “hijab police” but technically,
the instrument of the Islamic Republic of Iran which enforces, inter alia, the laws governing the
wearing of the hijab is گشت ارشاد (Gašt-e Eršād (Guidance Patrol)). On 16 September 2022, the hijab police arrested Mahsa Amini (b 2001) because she was wearing her hijab in “an un-Islamic
way”. While in custody, Ms Amini suffered
a medical event, dying two days later without recovering consciousness, the hijab police claiming the cause of death was heart failure, induced by pre-existing conditions. Her family dispute this, saying the evidence
suggests she was severely beaten and many witnesses have confirmed she was tortured
in the back of a van before arriving at a hijab police office.
Handy guide for the hijab police. Not only must hijab must be worn correctly but clothing must also be (1) not brightly colored, (2) not patterned with extravagant designs or shapes and (3) be loose enough that the shape of the body is not discernable.
Her death triggered waves of protests in Iran,
which, on the basis of footage seen in the West, seem dominated by school girls
and young women which, in the context of political protest, is historically
unusual. With protest signs and banners rendered
in YouTube & TikTok friendly English, the headline issue is of course the
matter of the hijab and whether women should be beaten to death for letting a
lock of hair slip from beneath but the women and girls are making clear they're protesting about corruption (noting the poverty of most while the clerical elite have become very rich), the structure of the state, the economy and the very
question of whether the republic should be an Islamic theocracy. The Ayatollahs are no doubt well aware that
the standard calculation in political science is that if 3½% of the population can be mobilized to revolt, regimes
can be toppled and most recently, the Afghan Taliban did it with a fraction of
that. For many reasons, Afghanistan may
be a special case and the Iranian state, on paper, is much better equipped to suppress
internal dissent but then the security apparatuses around Hosni Mubarak (1928-2020;
Egyptian dictator 1981-2011) and Muammar Gaddafi (circa 1942–2011; Libyan dictator 1969-2011) both looked impregnable until the volume of the protesters reached critical mass. These things are
however hard to judge from afar, Bashar al-Assad (b 1965; Syria dictator since
2000) looked vulnerable long before Gaddafi and Mubarak fell yet today he sits
still as dictator in Damascus. The Ayatollahs
are of course watching things with concern but so will individuals in the
Kremlin, aware their security apparatus has proved inadequate to execute the
battle plan of the recent special military action (war) in Ukraine and, in a
nice echo of the 1979 revolution, the protesters are again chanting the cry once
spat against the Shah: “Death to the Dictator!”.
