commonwealth

English Online Dictionary. What means commonwealth‎? What does commonwealth mean?

English

Alternative forms

• common-wealth (obsolete)

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/

Noun

commonwealth (plural commonwealths)

1. (obsolete) The well-being of a community.
2. The entirety of a (secular) society, a polity, a state.
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

Related terms

• commonweal

Translations

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.