public

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See also: públic

English[edit]

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Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Anglo-Norman publik, public, Middle French public, publique et al., and their source, Latin pūblicus ‎(“pertaining to the people”), alteration (probably after pubes ‎(“adult men”)) of populicus, from populus ‎(“people”). Compare people.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈpʌblɪk/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Hyphenation: pub‧lic

Adjective[edit]

public ‎(comparative more public, superlative most public)

  1. Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment. [from 14th c.]
    • 2011, Sandra Laville, The Guardian, 18 Apr 2011:
      Earlier this month Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
  2. Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc. [from 15th c.]
    • 2010, Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, 16 Sep 2010:
      A mere 3% of the more than 1,000 people interviewed said they actually knew what the conference was about. It seems safe to say public awareness of the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya - and its goal of safeguarding wildlife - is close to non-existent.
    • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly[1], volume 188, number 23, page 19:
      In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
  3. Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community. [from 15th c.]
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    • 2004, The Guardian, Leader, 18 Jun 2004:
      But culture's total budget is a tiny proportion of all public spending; it is one of the government's most visible success stories.
  4. Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. [from 15th c.]
    • 2011, David Smith, The Guardian, 10 May 2011:
      Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
    • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
  5. (of a company) Traded publicly via a stock market.

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from public (adjective)

Related terms[edit]

Terms etymologically related to public

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun[edit]

public ‎(plural publics)

  1. The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.
    Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case[2]:
      “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”
    • 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques, The Guardian
      Bush and Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
  2. (archaic) A public house; an inn.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

Usage notes[edit]

  • Although generally considered uncountable, this noun does also have countable usage, as in the quotation above.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923: thus · order · near · #286: public · others · anything · matter

External links[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Latin publicus.

Adjective[edit]

public m ‎(feminine singular publique, masculine plural publics, feminine plural publiques)

  1. public

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun use of public (compare Latin publicum).

Noun[edit]

public m ‎(plural publics)

  1. public (people in general)
  2. audience
    Il devait plaire à son public.
    He had to please his audience

External links[edit]

Ladin[edit]

Adjective[edit]

public m pl

  1. plural of publich

Old French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

public m ‎(oblique and nominative feminine singular publique)

  1. public (not private; available to the general populace)

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French public < Latin publicus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

public m, n ‎(feminine singular publică, masculine plural publici, feminine and neuter plural publice)

  1. public

Noun[edit]

public

  1. the public
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