Word Power will be a weekly blog that is intended to teach you the etymology and construction of everyday words. Etymology in short is understanding the origin of words and how the word has evolved throughout history. Today’s lesson is to understand the etymology of the word republican and other words associated with it.
Republican (Noun): [re-pub-li-can]
- One who favors a republic as the best form of government.
- A member of the Republican party of the United States. (American Heritage Dictionary)
Etymology
Before Rome was the great Empire that stretched across the majority of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, Rome was a Republic. The word republican has its origins in the 6th century B.C. when Rome was established as a republic. In order to understand the word republican, we need to drop off the suffix -an and get right to the root, republic.
Republic (Noun): [re-pub-lic]
- A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
- A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president. (American Heritage Dictionary)
Res
Unlike many Latin words, the word res was not used in the ancient greek language or culture. The definition of res is a thing, matter, affair, object, etc. There is not much to talk about with this word, except for the fact that its origin comes from the Indo-European root, re-. Most of us use a derrivative of re- in every day speech, in the form of the word real, which in noun form means a thing having actual existence.
Publicus-a-um
In Latin, the word publicus was an adjective that meant belonging to the people. In two thousand years, the meaning of this word has not changed much. The word public is commonly used today when referring to people in general. Additionally, the root publicus can be seen in words such as publication (the act of making public) and pub (slang for a public house). In 510 B.C., after the fall of the monarchy, Rome established res publica, which literally translated into a matter belonging to the people. The two words joined in Roman times to form respublica and then when the French got a hold of this word, it became republique. Eventually through the changing of dialects, the -que dropped off and was replaced by the letter c to make the word republic.
Summary
The term Republican in today’s society usually conjures up images of patriotic elephants and conservative right wing members of the GOP. Although words and their meanings are an ever changing idea, the literal translation of republican is a person that belongs to all affairs of the people. So the next time somebody starts talking trash about bipartisan nonsense, inform them that the true definition of the word republican actually means one that is simply involved in the affairs of the people and not one that divides the political process with their own self interests.
Extra Credit
The bipartisan system is not new to governments, actually the two party system has ancient roots firmly planted in the Roman Republic. However, instead of Republicans and Democrats, they were called plebeians and patricians. The Plebeians, also referred to as plebs, were the common citizens of the Roman Republic and the patricians were the elite nobles of Rome. For hundreds of years these two parties clashed with each other trying to get their way and pass self serving legislature.
Tune in next week for the breakdown of the word Democrat.
Image Used In This Post
GOP elephant mascot image courtesy of Flickr user makelessnoise under the CC license.
18 Comments
Julius Caesar is one of the original bipartisan politicians. A Patrician who had the interests of the plebs at heart and that is why the members of his own party hated him. Sounds a bit like a “maverick” I know – but look what the original Roman “maverick” wound up doing…
Abraham Lincoln founded the Republican Party. The greatest lie the Democrats ever pulled off was to convince the world that Republicans were a bunch of racists. I guess that means the man most remembered for abolishing slavery is the original racist.
Jack is just shocked and appalled that Republican does not have a Gambletonian lineage I think.
Jack,
How much experience did Abraham Lincoln have before becoming president?
Lincoln might have been an instrumental figurehead in establishing the current Republican party, but the Republican ideology of a decentralized government was the original purpose of the Democratic-Republican Party that was started in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson supporters. So following this line of thinking of a decentralized government, why was it that a Republican, such as Lincoln, imposed large governmental control and denied the South’s constitutional right to secede?
And this biggest lie going is that Lincoln’s only intention was to free the slaves. His intention was to keep the country together, the Emancipation was just a bonus.
Jack – I hate to say man, but I have been watching some of the rallies for sport and at every single one I have seen for McCain-Palin the supporters are extremist fanatical racists calling Obama all sorts of ethnic slurs. At one they even started harassing a black cameraman on stage chanting the N-word toward him…
Yes, Abe Lincoln was a Federalist – Alexander Hamilton would have been a big fan through and through.
There is no doubt that Lincoln was a tremendous President, easily one of our best It is also clear that no other President interpreted and brought more power and authority to the Executive Branch also. Being the victim of circumstance that he was, Lincoln had no choice but to perform as he did, demonstrating great leadership along the way.
But Rineberg is right, the ending of slavery was a benefit but hardly the impetus of conflict. Militarily speaking, the promise of freedom helped provide enough instability in the South to tip victory in favor of the Union.
Jay, I too heard many of those sound bites and it is absolutely disgusting. The fact that people so obtuse have a say in government is appalling. And I have to admit, I would not be proud of myself that those types of people were part of my supporters. They (the ignorant and uniformed racists) are an embarrassment to all.
Palin is taking heat for not doing more at the rallies to quiet those racist behaviors. In her position, it IS her responsibility to calm those people down because it only reflects poorly on their campaign and overall supporter base.
As we all know there are some really embarrassing liberals too. I just think the far right is just getting louder because they feel this election is slipping out of their grasp.
The far right is angry at McCain and Palin for not going negative sooner.
It is no secret that the far right did not want McCain in the primary. But the far right is deathly afraid of Obama’s policy which they (and I)see as bordering on socialism.
There are also countless soundbites of McCain supporters begging McCain and Palin to expose Obama for the fraud that he is. Which unfortunately, I think they waited too long to do so.
When I said far right I meant crazy right. So you support going negative? Where does that ever get anybody. Shouting at the rain is not what we need from either candidate now or ever. We need an umbrella.
Well,
To be clear, I did not want McCain in the primary, I wanted Giuliani.
My vote will be cast AGAINST Obama not out of any great love for McCain.
As far as going negative – Somehow a negative campaign against Bush has worked against McCain and the anti-Palin movement is out of control. So I don’t see any reason why the McCain camp should not use ties to a terrorist, voter fraud, and relationships with radical rascists. McCain tried to make a positive campaign up until this point and he is getting creamed in the polls so I think negative is the right move now.
Obviously not the preferred method but if it works…
See this a fundamental difference between the two of us
. I feel Mr. McCain has been incredibly negative. He’s is the one who wouldn’t call Barack by his first name and wouldn’t even look at him during the first debate and in the second debate he reffered to him as “that one”. While I don’t think that had any racial undertones it was at the very least disrespectful. He is also the one who had an add that compared the Senator to Paris Hilton. To me that’s negative.
Either way both sides feel they haven’t gone negative enough.
McCain has finally started to try and control the anger of his crowds. I saw this clip on the news of a McCain dealing with this supporter who says, “Obama can’t be trusted. He’s an Arab.”
This was McCain’s response…video clip
There’s a lot of pissed off people in the republican party right now. Hopefully it doesn’t get too out of hand.
CNN/USA TODAY/GALLUP POLL
Oct. 2-4, 2000
Likely voters’ choice for president
Gore 51%
Bush 40%
Nader 2%
Buchanan 1%
Sampling error: +/-4% pts
Haha, yes so you do remember Gore won that election and the Republicans stole it through confusing old people in Florida which just happened to be the state that Bush’s brother was governor. Isn’t that the same year McCain actually won the primary popularly and somehow Bush got more delegates? I would’ve voted for McCain that year, oh well…
The 2000 election was messed up on both sides. There is what you said, then there were people trying to throw out military votes and hanging chads (clear votes for Bush but were not solid holes punched all the way through the card, just indentations showing clear intent) Have you seen Recount (2008) with Kevin Spacey? Great movie!
Anyway, my point was that Bush still won the election even though he was down 11 points in October. I believe McCain happens to be down 11 points right now.
Yup, anything can happen. We probably won’t know the outcome on November 4th or 5th, either. It may take a while.
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