ephor
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of ephor
1580–90; < Latin ephorus < Greek éphoros overseer, guardian, ruler (Compare ephorân to look over, equivalent to ep- ep- + horân to see, look)
Explanation
In ancient Sparta, an ephor was an elected official who shared power with the two Spartan kings. An election was held each year to choose the five ephors who, along with the two kings, held executive power over the citizens of Sparta. Ephors were only allowed to serve one term, but their authority was far-reaching. Among many other duties, they filled in for an absent king, mediated between the monarchs, and could even arrest a king and try him in court. The Greek root of ephor means "overseer."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With these words he, as ephor, himself put the question to the assembly of the Lacedaemonians.
From The History of the Peloponnesian War by Crawley, Richard
Returning to Athens he was made ephor by the oligarchical party; and he was the most cruel and unscrupulous of the Thirty Tyrants who in 404 were appointed by the Lacedaemonians.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various
He gave it out also, that he was to continue ephor the ensuing year.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Clough, Arthur Hugh
Thucydides, at the opening of his second book, fixes his main date by the year of the priestess of Hera at Argos, by the Spartan ephor, and by the Athenian archon.
From Problems in Greek history by Mahaffy, John Pentland
The same ephor asked him, whether now at least he did not repent his rashness.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Clough, Arthur Hugh
Moreover, with respect to two magistracies of the highest rank, one they have a right to elect to, the other to fill; namely, the senate and the ephori.
From Politics: A Treatise on Government by Ellis, William
For the new creation of the ephori, though thought to be in favor of the people, was so far from diminishing, that it very much heightened, the aristocratical character of the government.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Clough, Arthur Hugh
Colleagues and ephori were in times past as unpleasant associates in the duties of government as protecting powers now are.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 by Various
But some say, that in the ephori is absolute power, and that it is their common meal and daily course of life, in which the democratical form is represented.
From Politics: A Treatise on Government by Ellis, William
For this purpose, the ephori, we are told, were established at Sparta, the council of a hundred at Carthage, and the tribunes at Rome.
From An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition by Ferguson, Adam
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash are among the singers to have been honourably discharged.According to Plutarch, the ephors sent back a message simply saying "if".
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2012
In historical times the ephors were five in number, the first of them giving his name to the year, like the eponymous archon at Athens.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various
In Sparta, however, so little was known of any despotic measure of the gerontes, that, on the contrary, the constitution was impaired when their antagonist office, the ephors, gained the ascendency in influence and power.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried
The inaccuracy of later writers has confounded the steps preparatory to the sentence, with the sentence itself; a power of life and death in the hands of the ephors would have been worse than tyranny.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried
Transl. with whose opinions on the ephors, as well as on the government of Sparta in general, the views taken in this work generally disagree.472.Polit.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
