commonwealth

See also: Commonwealth

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.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Ephesians ij:[12]:

     Remeber I saye yt ye were at that tyme wt oute Christ and were reputed aliantes from the comen welth [πολιτεία (politeía)] of Israel and were straugers fro the testamentes of promes and had no hope and were with out god in this worlde.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     I'th' commonwealth I would by contraries
     Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
     Would I admit; no name of magistrate […]

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

• Commonwealth of Australia
• Commonwealth of Kentucky
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Commonwealth of the Bahamas
• Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
• Commonwealth of Virginia

 

Related terms

• commonweal

Translations

form of government

• Afrikaans: gemenebes sg
• Antillean Creole: komònwels
• Arabic: كُومُنْوِلْث m (kumunwilṯ)
• Catalan: mancomunitat f
• Chinese:

  Dungan: лянбон (li͡anbon)

  Mandarin: 聯邦／联邦 (zh) (liánbāng)

• Dutch: gemenebest (nl) n
• Esperanto: komunumo (eo)
• Finnish: kansainyhteisö (fi), kansojenyhteisö
• French: communauté (fr), richesse commune
• Georgian: თანამეგობრობა (tanamegobroba)
• German: Staatenbund (de) m
• Greek: κοινοπολιτεία (el) f (koinopoliteía)
• Hebrew: קהילייה f (qehilia)
• Hungarian: nemzetközösség (hu), államközösség (hu), (of Australia) államszövetség (hu)
• Indonesian: persemakmuran (id)
• Irish: comhlathas m
• Japanese: 連邦 (ja) (れんぽう, renpō), コモンウェルス (ja) (komonwerusu)
• Kazakh: достастық (dostastyq)
• Khmer: សហធន (sak hak thon)
• Korean: 연방(聯邦) (ko) (yeonbang) (South Korea), 련방(聯邦) (ko) (ryeonbang) (North Korea)
• Latin: respublica f, civitas (la) f
• Malay: komanwel
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: samvelde n

  Nynorsk: samvelde n

• Polish: wspólnota (pl) f
• Portuguese: comunidade (pt) f
• Russian: содру́жество (ru) n (sodrúžestvo) (of the United Kingdom; Commonwealth of Independent States), сою́з (ru) m (sojúz) (of Australia)
• Spanish: comunidad (es) f, mancomunidad (es) f, estado libre asociado m
• Swedish: samvälde n
• Tagalog: komonwelt
• Vietnamese: thịnh vượng chung (盛旺喠)

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.