czar

Etymology

See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from Sigismund von Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii ("Notes on Muscovite Affairs") of 1549. The alternative tsar began to replace it in the 19th century.

noun

1. Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)
   Note therfore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar, signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled. 1555, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, translated by Richard Eden, The decades of the newe worlde or west India, London: William Powell, page 290
2. (informal, US politics) An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.
   drug czar
   cyberczar
   The federal mental health czar is calling for more money to expand services to help people suffering amid the social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic […] 8 May 2020, Jayne O'Donnell, “'Deaths of despair': Coronavirus pandemic could push suicide, drug deaths as high as 150k, study says”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 2020-05-09