different between overlord vs potentate

English

Etymology

over- +? lord

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /???v?(?)l??(?)d/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /???v?(?)?l??(?)d/

Noun

overlord (plural overlords)

1. A ruler of other rulers.

2. (historical) In the English feudal system, a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant.

3. Anyone with overarching power or authority in a given domain.

Usage notes

• (one with power or authority): This sense frequently carries negative connotations, and may imply tyranny or authoritarianism.

Derived terms

• overlordship

Related terms

• overlady

Translations

Verb

overlord (third-person singular simple present overlords, present participle overlording, simple past and past participle overlorded)

1. To rule over; to domineer.

Anagrams

• lord over

English

Etymology

From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potent?tus (“rule, political power”), from Latin pot?ns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“I am able”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p??.t?n.te?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?po?.t?n.te?t/

Noun

potentate (plural potentates)

1. A powerful leader; a monarch; a ruler.
   • 1592, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, act iii, scene 2

     But Kings and mightie?t Potentates mu?t die,
     For that's the end of humane mi?erie.

   • 1900, Theodore Dreiser, "Sister Carrie"

     She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate as the treasures of his harem.

2. A powerful polity or institution.
3. (derogatory) A self-important person.

Usage notes

This term usually carries connotations or implications of ancient despotism before advanced Western conceptions of civil law and Enlightenment values; in other words, a potentate can be described as a king or realm that exercises "raw", absolute power by decree and entrenched in "exotic" customs and traditions (cf. Orientalism). For example, a "Hindu potentate" would refer to those petty kings who controlled various small dominions in India before the British Raj. Particularly in the second sense, use of "potentate" to refer to Western states even before the modern era is rare, and may even be intended humorously in such a case.

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

potentate (comparative more potentate, superlative most potentate)

1. (obsolete) Regnant, powerful, dominant.