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Russian emperors are usually referred to as "Tsars" or "Czars". However, while the first spelling (Tsar) utilises the standard English transliteration of the Cyrillic ц as ts, the second transliteration does not.

None of the Slavic languages that use the Latin script render their ц phoneme equivalent as "cz". Polish, Czech and Slovak render the phoneme as c instead. cz renders as a completely different phoneme in Polish, and does not exist in Czech or Slovak.

Where then, did the "cz" spelling originate from?

March Ho
  • 3,260

1 Answers1

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It appears that it was a spelling given by Sigismund von Herberstein, (Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii.)

Czar

  • 1550s, from Russian tsar, from Old Slavic tsesari, from Gothic kaisar, from Greek kaisar, from Latin Caesar. First adopted by Russian emperor Ivan IV, 1547.
  • The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii, 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whence it passed into the Western Languages generally; in some of these it is now old-fashioned; the usual Ger. form is now zar; French adopted tsar during the 19th c. This also became frequent in English towards the end of that century, having been adopted by the Times newspaper as the most suitable English spelling. [OED]

Etymonlyne