police

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pəˈliːs/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French police (“organized government, civil administration”),^[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin polītia (“citizenship, government”),^[5][6][3] from Latin polītīa (“the state”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship, government”), from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”), from πόλις (pólis, “city”).^[7][4] The older English form policie is the same word as policy.^[8][6][9] Barnhart explains that the modern law-enforcement sense was borrowed again from modern French.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The regulation and control of a community, civil organization: 1530.^[8][4][2] The Word Origins dictionary notes that in the 15th century police was another word for policy.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Until the mid-19th century police in England meant civil administration in general.^[2] The sense “maintenance of public order” came from French at the end of the 17th century^[2][9] and is recorded from 1716, after Commissioners of Police in 1714,^[8] at first mostly of France and other foreign countries.^[2] Barnhart finds the word used of the people who enforce the law about 1730 in Scotland.^[8] The first force so called in England was the Marine Police, set up about 1798 to protect goods in the Port of London,^[2][6] and the London force of 1829 was long known as the New Police.^[6] Policeman is from 1801, police force from 1838, in Dickens, and police dog from 1908.^[8] The verb meant “to keep order in” in 1589,^[8][10] “to control by means of police” from 1837^[2] or 1841,^[8] and in American English “to clean up (a camp)” from 1851.^[8]

Timeline

• 1530 – civil organization.^[8]
• 1589 – verb, to keep order.^[8]
• 1716 – public order.^[8][2]
• c. 1730 – law enforcers, in Scotland.^[8]
• 1798 – the Marine Police.^[2]
• 1801 – policeman.^[8]
• 1829 – the New Police in London.^[6]
• 1838 – police force (Dickens).^[8]
• 1851 – verb, to clean up a camp.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The government department responsible for keeping order, enforcing the law and preventing and detecting crime.
2. The members of such a department; police officers.
3. A body of people with similar duties in an organization: campus police.

Verb

1. To keep order in or control, with or as if with police.
2. (US military) To make neat and clean: police the barracks.

Word family

• policeable
• policer
• overpolice
• policeperson
• prepolice
• policeman

Related words

• policy
• polis
• political
• politician
• politicise
• politicize
• politic
• politics
• polity
• metropolis

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 i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster