different between tyranny vs pimpernel

English

Etymology

From Middle English tirannye, borrowed from Old French tyrannie, from Medieval Latin tyrannia, tyrania, from Ancient Greek ???????? (turannía, “tyranny”), from ???????? (túrannos, “lord, master, sovereign, tyrant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t???ni/
• Rhymes: -??ni

Noun

tyranny (countable and uncountable, plural tyrannies)

1. A government in which a single ruler (a tyrant) has absolute power; this system of government.
2. The office or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler.
3. Absolute power, or its use.
4. A system of government in which power is exercised on behalf of the ruler or ruling class, without regard to the wishes of the governed.
5. Extreme severity or rigour.

Synonyms

• (government): autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, monarchy

Derived terms

• anarcho-tyranny
• tyrannical
• tyranny of the majority

Related terms

• tyrant

Translations

See also

• autocracy
• monarchy

Further reading

• tyranny in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• tyranny in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• tyranny at OneLook Dictionary Search

Middle English

Noun

tyranny

1. Alternative form of tirannye

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle (“burnet saxifrage”) et al., from Medieval Latin pimpinella, pipinella, most likely from piper (“pepper”) because its fruit resembled peppercorns, although variants may suggest other derivations, bipinnella the bipennis (“two-winged”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?mp?n?l/

Noun

pimpernel (plural pimpernels)

1. (now rare) A plant of the genus Pimpinella, especially burnet saxifrage, Pimpinella saxifraga. [from 16th c.]
2. Any of various plants of the genus Anagallis, having small red, white or purple flowers, especially the scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis. [from 15th c.]
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 221:

     Common Pimpernel has diverse weak square stalks lying on the ground, beset all along with two small and almost round leaves at every joint [...].

3. Sanguisorba spp. [from 16th c.]
   1. Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) [from 16th c.]
   2. Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor). [from 16th c.]
4. (Canada, US) A yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima)
5. (figuratively) Someone resembling the fictional Scarlet Pimpernel; a gallant dashing resourceful man given to remarkable feats of bravery and derring-do in liberating victims of tyranny and injustice. [from 20th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote?), Hal Lehrman

     Lined up solidly with the Pimpernels and with the persecuted.

Translations