English

Noun

Ukase

1. Alternative letter-case form of ukase

German

Noun

Ukase m pl

1. plural of Ukas

English

Alternative forms

• ukaz/Ukaz
• Ukase

Noun

ukase ‎(plural ukases)

1. An authoritative proclamation; an edict, especially decreed by a Russian czar or (later) emperor.
   • Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy

     Many estates peopled with crown peasants have been, according to an ukase of Peter the Great, ceded to particular individuals on condition of establishing manufactories […]

   • 1805, The Times, 6 May 1805, page 3, col. C:

     An Ukase, it appears, has been issued by the Emperor Alexander, to facilitate the introduction of calimancoes and other Norwich goods into his Empire.

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2004, p. 704:

     The planters, he explained in a letter to Lincoln, would accept emancipation by ukase in preference to being compelled to enact it themselves in a new constitution.

2. (figuratively) Any absolutist order and/or arrogant proclamation
   • 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:

     I knew a stunned plunge of disappointment and a bitter anger. What right had he to issue such an arbitrary ukase?

   • 2008, Stephen Burt, "Kick Over the Scenery", London Review of Books, July 2008:

     It is a short step from discovering that the world we know is a fake or a cheat to discovering that human beings are themselves factitious: that we are robots, ‘simulacra’ (the title of one of Dick’s novels), ‘just reflex machines’, ‘repeating doomed patterns, a single pattern, over and over’ in accordance with biological or economic ukases.

Translations

See also

• decree
• edict
• ukase on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ukaz in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

French

Alternative forms

• oukase

Etymology

From Russian ука́з ‎(ukáz, “edict, decree”), from Old East Slavic указъ ‎(ukáz, “edict”), from указать ‎(ukazat’, “to show, decree”), from Old Church Slavonic указати ‎(ukazati, “to show, decree”), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- ‎(u-) (denoting a concrete purpose) + казати ‎(kazati, “to show, order”). Compare Dutch oekaze, German Ukas, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /y.kaz/

Noun

ukase m ‎(plural ukases)

1. ukase (a decree from a Russian ruler, or any absolute or arrogant order)

See also

• décret m
• édit m
• loi
• ordonnance

Italian

Alternative forms

• ucase

Noun

ukase m ‎(invariable)

1. ukase

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• ucase

Noun

ukase m (plural ukases)

1. ukase (proclamation by a Russian ruler)