boyar

American  

[boh-yahr, boi-er] / boʊˈyɑr, ˈbɔɪ ər /

Also boyard

noun

1. Russian History. a member of the old nobility of Russia, before Peter the Great made rank dependent on state service.

2. a member of a former privileged class in Romania.

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boyar British  

/ ˈbɔɪə, ˈbəʊjɑː /

noun

1. a member of an old order of Russian nobility, ranking immediately below the princes: abolished by Peter the Great

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Other Word Forms

• boyardism noun
• boyarism noun

Etymology

Origin of boyar

First recorded in 1585–95; earlier boiaren, from Russian boyárin, akin to Old Church Slavonic bolyarinŭ (translating Greek megistán “man of high status”), Bulgarian bolyár(in); further origin uncertain

Example Sentences

This one held a dozen long banquet tables, all packed with what Anya assumed were the tsar’s noble boyars.

From Literature

In an important distinction from Western practice, the boyars — Moscow’s version of nobility — held status and property solely at the czar’s pleasure, with no rights of private ownership.

From New York Times

This he afterwards explained by saying that to a boyar the pride of his house and name is his own pride, that their glory is his glory, that their fate is his fate.

From Literature

Putin understood that to rule Russia he had to stay genuinely popular with “the masses” and from time to time crack his whip at the elites: a “good tsar” reining in the greedy “boyars”.

From The Guardian

That has made the Kremlin virtually the only recourse for Russia’s discontents and bolstered faith in a centuries-old adage: The czar is good, but the boyars—the greedy, sycophantic nobles who surround him—are bad.

From The Wall Street Journal