Nebuchadnezzar

A correspondent of Notes and Queries (July 21, 1877) says that the compound Russian word Nebock-ad-ne-tzar means, “There is no god but the czar.” Of course this is not the meaning of the Babylonian proper name, but the coincidence is curious. The -ezzar of Nebuchadnezzar means Assyria, and appears in such words as Nabonassar, Bel-ch-azzar, Nebo-pol-assar, Tiglath-Pil-eser, Esar-haden, and so on.

Nabonassar is Nebo-adan-Assur (Nebo prince of Assyria); Nebuchadnezzar is Nebo-chah-adun-Assar (Nebo, royal prince-of Assyria). Nebo was probably an Assyrian god, but it was no unusual thing for kings to assume the names of gods, as Bel-ch-azzar, where Bel = Baal (Baal king-of Assyria.) (See Nabo.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.