aristarchy

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἄριστος (áristos, “best”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “rule”).

Noun

aristarchy (countable and uncountable, plural aristarchies)

1. Government by the best rulers.
   • 1838, B. H. Roberts, quoting Joseph Smith, A comprehensive history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 2, published 1930, page 428:

     All good and wholesome laws, virtue and truth above all things, and aristarchy, live forever. But woe to tyrants, mobs, aristocracy, anarchy, and toryism […]

2. A body of such rulers.
   • 1854, Leicester Ambrose Sawyer, Organic Christianity, Part IV, Division V, Chapter III, page 248:

     [A Presbyterian session] is […] a court of monarchs, or aristarchs, who hold their office for life; a limited monarchy […] or, more strictly, an aristarchy of rulers appointed for life, and ruling on the principle of elective aristarchy.

Derived terms

• aristarchic

Related terms

• meritocracy