Brewer's: Nebuchadnezzar

A correspondent of Notes and Queries (July 21, 1877) says that the compound Russian word Neboch-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 Nabon-assar, 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.)

Nebuchadnezzar

The prophet Daniel says that Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon and said, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built ... by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” And “the same hour ... he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws” (iv. 29-33).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Necessity

Nebraska