Jeddak

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A paramount ruler or chief of a city or nation on the fictional planet Mars in Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels
2. The title given to a sovereign leader of a Martian city-state in the science fiction stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. An imaginary Martian monarch who governs a city or people in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom adventure tales

Etymology: Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan novels, coined "jeddak" for his Martian stories, and it belongs to the invented vocabulary of his Barsoom series. The word names the hereditary ruler of an independent Martian city-state, a rank that sits above a "jed" (a lesser chief) and the "jeddak" of a single city. Burroughs drew on the same invented-language habit he used for his other Martian terms, building sounds that felt exotic to English readers rather than borrowing from any real tongue. Because the word is a fiction-only coinage, its history is that of a deliberate invention rather than a sound change over centuries. Its sense is fixed by Burroughs's novels, where the title carries real political weight: a jeddak commands his city's warriors and may hold authority over smaller holdings. Readers outside science fiction rarely meet it, but within the genre it became a standard piece of Martian court vocabulary.

Synonyms: khan, emperor, ruler, sovereign

Antonyms: subject, vassal