government

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɡʌv.ən.mənt/, /ˈɡʌv.əm.mənt/ (UK); /ˈɡʌv.ɚn.mənt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English governement, borrowed from Old French governement (“control, direction, administration”),^[2][3] from governer (“to steer; to rule”) and -ment.^[4][5] Governer is from Latin gubernāre (“to steer, pilot; to direct, rule”),^[2][6] a nautical borrowing from Ancient Greek κυβερνᾶν (kubernân, “to steer, pilot a ship”).^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of governing or ruling; also the system by which something is governed (late 14th century, in Chaucer).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford date the word to the late 14th century, while Hoad gives the 16th.^[2][3][7] Its early senses included the government of oneself: management of the body and moral conduct or discretion, as in Shakespeare's “want of government”.^[4][3] It was used of steering a ship from 1562 to 1699.^[8] The sense “the system by which a state is ruled” is from 1553,^[8] and Johnson (1755) gave this as his first sense.^[9] For “the governing power of a country”, the HTOED has 1541 and Etymonline 1702.^[8][2] In grammar, government has meant the control of one word's case by another since 1569.^[8] In Australia, Morris recorded Government as a common shortening of “Government service”.^[10] In British youth slang since about 2016, one's government name is one's real name.^[11]

Timeline

• late 14th century – the act of governing (Chaucer).^[2]
• 1541 – the governing power in a country.^[8]
• 1550 – a period of rule.^[8]
• 1553 – the system by which a state is governed.^[8]
• 1554 – a territory under a governor.^[8]
• 1562 – the working or steering of a ship (obsolete by 1699).^[8]
• 1569 – (grammar) the control of one word's form by another.^[8]
• 1702 – the governing power in a place.^[2]
• 2016 – government name, one's real name (British slang).^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The body of people who govern a state; a particular ministry in office.
2. The system by which a state or community is governed.
3. The act or manner of governing; political rule.
4. (grammar) The relation in which one word determines the form of another.
5. (archaic) An administrative division; a territory.

Word family

• governmental
• governmentally
• antigovernment
• government-in-exile
• nongovernment

Related words

• govern
• governance
• governor
• gubernatorial
• cybernetics

Usage notes

In American usage government always takes a singular verb; in British usage, meaning a group of ministers, it often takes a plural one (the government are determined).^[12][13] The pronunciation with the first n merged into the following m is standard.^[14]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House