Diktat

diktat \ dik-TAHT \ noun

1: a harsh settlement unilaterally imposed (as on a defeated nation)
2: decree, order

EXAMPLE:

The company president issued a diktat that employees may not wear jeans to work.

"In the past month, opposition-party mayors of San Cristobal and San Diego have been ousted and imprisoned by judicial decisions based on government diktats." — Henrique Capriles-Radonski, The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

In "diktat" you might recognize the English word "dictate." Both words derive from the Latin vrb "dictare" ("to assert" or "to dictate"), a form of "dicere" ("to say"). "Diktat" passed through German where it meant "something dictated." "Dictate" can mean both "to speak words aloud to be transcribed" and "to issue a command or injunction," the sense of the word that gave us "dictator." Germans, beginning with Prince Wilhelm, used "diktat" in a negative way to refer to the Treaty of Versailles, the document ending World War I. Today "diktat" can be used as a critical term for even minor regulations felt to be unfair or authoritarian.