empery
English
Etymology
From Middle English emperie, from Old French emperie, from Latin imperium, inperium (“command, control, dominion, sovereignty, a dominion, empire”), from imperare, inperare (“to command, order”), from in (“in, on”) + parare (“to make ready, order”). Doublet of imperium and empire.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɛm.pə.ɹɪ/, /ˈɛm.pɹɪ/
Noun
empery (plural emperies)
- (obsolete) An empire; the status or dominion of an emperor.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:
- Let’s cheere our ſouldiers to incounter him,
That grieuous image of ingratitude:
That fiery thirſter after Soueraigntie:
And burne him in the fury of that flame,
That none can quench but blood and Empery.
- 1604, Edward Coke, "To the Reader", The Fourth Part of the Reports of Sir Edward Coke, Kt..
- Secondly, the Largeneſs of his Empery, and the firſt Conquest of Ireland, long before the Reign of K. Hen. the Second.
- 1661, John Donne, "To his Mistress going to Bed":
- My Myne of precious stones: My Emperie, / How blest am I in this discovering thee!
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- (archaic) Absolute power or authority.
- 1833, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound:
- Because he filched away
Thine own bright flower, the glory of plastic fire,
And gifted mortals with it, — such a sin
It doth behoove he expiate to the gods,
Learning to accept the empery of Zeus,
And leave off his old trick of loving man.
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Synonyms
- (absolute authority): dominion, sovereignty