− | If the 'public' is any configuration of people, the '''re-public''' is that which 're-presents' them. | + | If 'public' indicates the presence of a plurality of [[individual]]s, the '''re-public''' is that which 're-presents' them. |
| 1604, "state in which supreme power rests in the people," from Fr. république, from L. respublica (abl. republica), lit. res publica "public interest, the state," from res "affair, matter, thing" + publica, fem. of publicus "public" (see public). Republican (adj.) "belonging to a republic" is recorded from 1712; in noun sense of "one who favors a republic" it is recorded from 1697; and in sense of a member of a specific U.S. political party (the Anti-Federalists) from 1782, though this was not the ancestor of the modern Republican Party, which dates from 1854. Republicrat in U.S. political jargon usually meaning "moderate," is attested from 1940. | | 1604, "state in which supreme power rests in the people," from Fr. république, from L. respublica (abl. republica), lit. res publica "public interest, the state," from res "affair, matter, thing" + publica, fem. of publicus "public" (see public). Republican (adj.) "belonging to a republic" is recorded from 1712; in noun sense of "one who favors a republic" it is recorded from 1697; and in sense of a member of a specific U.S. political party (the Anti-Federalists) from 1782, though this was not the ancestor of the modern Republican Party, which dates from 1854. Republicrat in U.S. political jargon usually meaning "moderate," is attested from 1940. |
− | fr: republic. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic (accessed: August 24, 2007). | + | fr: republic. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic] accessed: August 24, 2007. |
| ==American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition == | | ==American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition == |
| fr: republic. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic (accessed: August 24, 2007). | | fr: republic. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic (accessed: August 24, 2007). |