toparch

• Toparch, topark (all obsolete)

From the Ancient Greek τοπάρχης (topárkhēs, “ruler of a small district”), from τόπος (tópos, “place”) +‎ -αρχης (-arkhēs, “ruler”). Compare the Latin toparcha and French toparque.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒpɑːk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɒpɑ(ɹ)k

toparch (plural toparchs)

1. The prince or ruler of a small district, city, or petty state; a petty "king".
   • 1640, T[homas] F[uller], “A Comment on 1 Cor. XI. 18, &c.”, in Ioseph’s Partie-colored Coat: Containing, a Comment on Part of the 11. Chapter of the 1. Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians: […], London: […] Iohn Dawson, for Iohn Williams, […], →OCLC; republished as William Nichols, editor, Joseph’s Party-coloured Coat: […], London: William Tegg, 1867, →OCLC, page 16:

     [B]y those many kings mentioned in the Old Testament, "thirty and one" in the little land of Canaan, (Joshua xii. 24,) is meant only toparchs, not great kings, but lords of a little dition and dominion; […]

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, chapter VIII, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 7th book, page 353:

     Toparks, Kings of Cities or narrow territories, such as were the Kings of Sodome and Gomorrah, the Kings of Jericho and Ai.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, “6ª Century”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, book, pages 116–117:

     About the same time […] flourished Cadocus, abbot of Llancarvan in Glamorganshire, son of the prince and toparch of that country.

   • 1737, Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Antiquities of the Jews, book XI, chapter iii, § 2:

     The toparchs of India and Ethiopia.

   • 1852, Charlotte Mary Yonge, chapter XXII, in Cameos from English History, volume I, published 1877, page 162:

     The top-arch, Turlogh O’Connor, was the friend of O’Rourke.

• toparchical

• toparchy

• NED X, part i (Ti–U; 1st ed., 1926), § 1 (Ti–Tz), page 149/1, “Toparch”

• Caphtor, archtop