body politic

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

body +‎ politic (postpositive adjective), calque of Latin corpus polīticum.

Noun

body politic (plural bodies politic)

  1. (figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized.
    • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Systems Subject Political and Private”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: for Andrew Crooke, , →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 115:
      In Bodies Politique the power of the Repreſentative is alwaies Limited: And that which preſcribeth the Limits thereof, is the Power Soveraign.
    • 1951, Hannah Arendt, “The Jews, the Nation-state, and the Birth of Antisemitism”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif., New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, →ISBN, part 1 (Antisemitism), page 14:
      In contrast to all other groups, the Jews were defined and their position determined by the body politic.
    • 2014 February 7, Kathryn Harrison, “The Body Politic”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      While most historians of the period dissect the body politic, Whitelock doesn’t waste time in the halls of Parliament. Instead, she hastens straight to the boudoir of the queen who chose celibacy as a means of wielding power.
  2. (figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions.
  3. (archaic) A corporation.

Translations

collective body as politically organized
collective body as exercising political functions

Further reading

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