English

Noun

priest-king ‎(plural priest-kings)

1. A sacred king, a monarch with prominent religious attributes.
   • 1606, J. Sylvester translating G. de S. Du Bartas as Deuine Weekes & Wks., ii. iv. iii. 169

     The while this Priest-King sacrifiz'd To's clov'n-foot God in Bethel (self-devis'd).

   • 1920, H.G. Wells, Outl. Hist., iii. xix. 124/2

     The beginnings of organized war, first as a bickering between villages, and then as a more disciplined struggle between the priest-king and god of one city and those of another.

2. A theocrat, a sovereign high priest.
   • 1877, J.E. Carpenter translating C.P. Tiele as Outl. Hist. Relig., 55

     Lower Egypt throws off the yoke of the priest-Kings of Thebes.

   • 1995 September 21, N.Y. Times Review of Books, 32/1

     He was more like a priest-king, a combination of the Pope and a constitutional monarch.