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From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Drug Tsar - was Re: Media Mongols?
Message-ID: <DF0qJA.3Ar@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <255786974.10588605@inform-bbs.dk> <43cq79$f95@mets.tci.east-lansing.mi.us> <DEz96x.2vD@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 22:01:58 GMT
Lines: 14

The OED does not cover this matter very well, but my impression is
that "czar" in the sense being discussed had its start as U.S.
journalese for someone given extraordinary powers to clean up a mess.
In particular, the baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who
was appointed in the wake of a bribery scandal (ca. 1920? before my
time, anyway) was commonly called the baseball czar.

The spelling & pronunciation have not generally followed the reform by
which the Russian emperor came to be called the tsar.  Thus, czar &
tsar have effectively become distinct words.
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
