Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Word -Ukase

"Let me give you a little ukase, Kolt." Yorvet said after a long moment of silence between them. "Do what I say, listen, become what I need you to become, and one day you can walk away. Without me dead."
Kolt shook his head, gripping the blade tighter. "No."
Yorvet exhaled with disappointment. "So you want to be a horse for a while longer then, fine by me."
He raised his hands.
Kolt backed away, with barred teeth. "Don't!"
"You leave me no choice, I can't have you running off to daddy no can I?"

Ukase - 1: a proclaimation by a Russian emperor or government having the force of law 2a: a proclamation having the force of law b: order, command.

Added Info - English speakers adopted "ukase" more or less simultaneously from French (ukase) and Russian (ukaz) in the early 18th century. The word can be traced further back to the Russian verb ukazat', meaning "to show" or "to order," and its ultimate source is an ancient root that led to similar words in Latin, Sanskrit, and Old Church Slavic. A Russian ukase was a command from the highest levels of government that could not be disobeyed. But by the early 19th century, English speakers were also using "ukase" generally for any command that seemed to come from a higher authority, particularly one that was final or arbitrary.

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