Ukase Has Russian Roots

English speakers adopted ukase more or less simultaneously from French (ukase) and Russian (ukaz) in the early 18th century. The word can be traced further back to the Russian verb ukazat', meaning "to show" or "to order," and its ultimate source is an ancient root that led to similar words in Latin, Sanskrit, and Old Church Slavic. A Russian ukase was a command from the highest levels of government that could not be disobeyed. But by the early 19th century, English speakers were also using ukase generally for any command that seemed to come from a higher authority, particularly one that was final or arbitrary.

Examples of ukase in a Sentence

she brazenly ignored the company's ukase about entering by the back door

Recent Examples on the Web To be clear, the Pennsylvania court’s post–November 3 ballot-counting ukase has not been validated. — Andrew C. Mccarthy, National Review, 3 Nov. 2020 After a brief sitting this week, under Johnson’s ukase, Parliament was not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 14, leaving him with a lot of unaccountable power. — E.j. Dionne Jr., The Mercury News, 5 Sep. 2019 Trump must have felt quite confident in issuing his ukase. — Garrett Epps, The Atlantic, 11 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ukase.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.