commonwealth
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See also: Commonwealth
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From common (“public”) + wealth (“well-being”). From c. 1450 as common wele (commonweal). In the form common-wealth (common welthe) from c. 1520, used by Tyndale in the sense "secular society" in particular, for which other authors preferred publike weal. Also from the 1520s treated as a synonym or loan-translation of res publica (republic) (Rollison 2017:67f).
Pronunciation
- (Canada, US) IPA(key): /ˈkɑmənˌwɛlθ/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈkɔmənˌwɛlθ/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈkɒmənˌwelθ/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɒmənˌwɛlθ/
- Hyphenation: com‧mon‧wealth
Noun
commonwealth (plural commonwealths)
- (obsolete) The well-being of a community.
- The entirety of a (secular) society, a polity, a state.
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Ephesians ij::
- Remeber I saye yt ye were at that tyme wt oute Christ and were reputed aliantes from the comen welth [πολιτεία (politeía)] of Israel and were straugers fro the testamentes of promes and had no hope and were with out god in this worlde.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- I'th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate […]
- Republic. Often capitalized, as Commonwealth.
- 1649, Act of the Long Parliament
- Be it declared and enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authoritie of the same That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territoryes thereunto belonging are and shall be and are hereby constituted, made, established, and confirmed to be a Commonwealth and free State And shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the supreame Authoritie of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Parliam and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers under them for the good of the People and that without any King or House of Lords.
- 1649, Act of the Long Parliament
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
form of government
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References
- David Rollison, A Commonwealth of the People: Popular Politics and England's Long Social Revolution, 1066-1649, Cambridge University Press, (2010), p. 13.
- David Rollison in: Fitter (ed.), Shakespeare and the Politics of Commoners: Digesting the New Social History, Oxford University Press, (2017), 64–83.