anarchy

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæn.ə.ki/ (UK); /ˈæn.ɚ.ki/, /ˈæn.ɑɹ.ki/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French anarchie or directly from Medieval Latin anarchia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía, “lack of a leader”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from ánarkhos “without a ruler”,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-, “without”) + ἀρχός (arkhós, “leader, ruler”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Absence of government; a state of lawlessness and political disorder (1539).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Athens the Greek word was used of the year 404 BC, when there was no archon.^[4] In English the sense widened in the 1650s and 1660s to the absence of authority or order in any sphere.^[7][4] In the 19th century it was applied to the political theory, formulated by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in the 1830s and 1840s, of a society organized by voluntary cooperation without government (1850).^[7][4] Anarchist dates from 1678.^[3]

Timeline

• 1539 – absence of government, lawlessness.^[7][3][5]
• 1656 – moral disorder.^[7]
• 1667 – absence of order in any sphere.^[7]
• 1678 – anarchist.^[3]
• 1850 – a society without government, as a political ideal.^[7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Absence of any form of political authority or government.
2. Political and social disorder and lawlessness due to the absence of government.
3. Absence of any order or common principle; chaos or confusion.
4. A society of individuals living in freedom without government, as a political ideal; anarchism.

Word family

• anarchic
• anarchism
• anarchist

Related words

• monarchy
• oligarchy
• archon
• chaos

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press