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commonwealth

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Commonwealth

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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commonwealth (plural commonwealths)

  1. (obsolete) The well-being of a community.
  2. 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:[12]:
      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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      I'th' commonwealth I would by contraries
      Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
      Would I admit; no name of magistrate […]
    • 1963, Sumner Chilton Powell, “Introduction”, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, Wesleyan University Press:
      These early town leaders [in seventeenth-century New England] had a type of challenge exciting to idealists. Each early town was, in a real sense, a little commonwealth. Legally it was able to select its members and to exclude “such whose dispositions do not suit us, whose society will be hurtful to us.”³ Furthermore, each town was free to make as many laws as it considered necessary and to operate with considerable flexibility in relation to “The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay.” While a town needed the general government in times of crisis and emergency and recognized the Massachusetts General Court as the source of authority, it often admitted local prerogatives which did not agree, point by point, with every law made for the good of the commonwealth. For the early years, then, each town could make an attempt to form as much of an ideal state as its leaders could conceive and find agreement on. […] Edward Winslow, in Plymouth, made a revealing statement when he wrote, “We came here to avoid the hierarchy, the holy days, the Book of Common Prayer, etc.” […] There were, depending on the local area, many types of hierarchies in England […] If all this social structure was to be “avoided,” what substitutions did New England town leaders intend in order to provide form, spirit, and leadership to their new idealistic small commonwealths? How successful were any of these town leaders, and how did they measure their successes? Although each early Massachusetts, or New England, town might well provide distinct and fascinating answers, the historian is limited by his documents. Furthermore, he should not attempt to crowd his stage too much, lest the dramatis personae overwhelm his audience. One town, well documented in relation to its specific origins, can serve as a representative study for most early New England towns until further investigation takes place.
  3. 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[ent] 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.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • 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.
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