ethnarch

English

Etymology

From Middle French ethnarque, and its sources, New Latin ethnarcha, Koine Greek ἐθνάρχης (ethnárkhēs, “ruler of a tribe or nation, title of a Jewish official”), from Ancient Greek ἔθνος (éthnos, “nation”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕthʹ-närk', IPA^(key): /ˈɛθˌnɑːɹk/
  • (US) /ˈɛθˌnɑːɹk/
  • (UK) /ˈɛθˌnɑːk/
• Hyphenation: eth‧narch
• Rhymes: -ɛθnɑː(ɹ)k

Noun

ethnarch (plural ethnarchs)

1. (historical) The governor of a Jewish province under the Roman Empire.
   • 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ:

     In the course of the struggle with the unfortunate ethnarch, the nobles had found it expedient to attach themselves to Rome.

2. A leader of an ethnic community, especially a Jewish or (in the Ottoman Empire) Eastern Orthodox leader having political as well as spiritual authority.
   • 1984, Jacob Neusner, Our Sages, God, and Israel: An Anthology of The Talmud of the Land of Israel, SP Books, →ISBN, page 120:

     In fact, from a worldly perspective, sages were petty clerks, employees of the ethnarch of their ethnic group. The ethnarch may have treated sages with  […]

   • 2001, Anna Jarstad, Changing the Game: Consociational Theory and Ethnic Quotas in Cyprus and New Zealand, Uppsala Universitet:

     The Archbishop became the ethnarch, the leader of the ethnic group. It was his responsibility to administer the territories where his people lived, to collect taxes and to regulate matters relating to marriage, divorce, dowry and inheritance.

   • 2013, John Coakley, Pathways from Ethnic Conflict: Institutional Redesign in Divided Societies, Routledge, →ISBN, page 135:

     By the seventeenth century the archbishop became recognized as the ethnarch (ethnic political leader) of the Greek Cypriot community.

   • 2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Country, Penguin, published 2020, page 310:

     But the Ethnarch, by tradition and long-established practice that had begun under the Ottomans, was more than a spiritual leader. He was expected to act as the spokesman, defender and protector of his flock.