"night watchman state" meaning in All languages combined

See night watchman state on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: night watchman states [plural]
Etymology: Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft. Etymology templates: {{calque|en|de|Nachtwächterstaat}} Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat Head templates: {{en-noun|head=night watchman state}} night watchman state (plural night watchman states)
  1. (political philosophy) Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts. Wikipedia link: Ferdinand Lassalle, en:night-watchman state Categories (topical): Forms of government, Libertarianism Synonyms: minarchy, minimal state, night-watchman state Translations (Translations): nachtwakersstaat [masculine] (Dutch), yövartijavaltio (Finnish), État-gendarme [masculine] (French), Nachtwächterstaat [masculine] (German), Minimalstaat [masculine] (German), estado vigilante nocturno [masculine] (Spanish), nattväktarstat [common-gender] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for night watchman state meaning in All languages combined (3.6kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "de",
        "3": "Nachtwächterstaat"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat",
      "name": "calque"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "night watchman states",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "night watchman state"
      },
      "expansion": "night watchman state (plural night watchman states)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Forms of government",
          "orig": "en:Forms of government",
          "parents": [
            "Government",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Libertarianism",
          "orig": "en:Libertarianism",
          "parents": [
            "Ideologies",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Mark A. Graber, Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism, University of California Press, page 18",
          "text": "The doctrines of conservative liberalism were propounded by the late nineteenth century's leading intellectual proponents of the night watchman state.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 1, Tristram Hunt, “The coalition holds Britain's cultural fabric in contempt”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "For these neoLiberal Democrats of the Orange Book school remain determined to junk social liberalism for economic liberalism. Their guiding light is the Gladstonian ideal of a low tax, laissez-faire, “night-watchman state”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts."
      ],
      "id": "en-night_watchman_state-en-noun-TZUDPjXU",
      "qualifier": "political philosophy",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(political philosophy) Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "minarchy"
        },
        {
          "word": "minimal state"
        },
        {
          "word": "night-watchman state"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "nachtwakersstaat"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "yövartijavaltio"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "État-gendarme"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Nachtwächterstaat"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Minimalstaat"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "estado vigilante nocturno"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "nattväktarstat"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ferdinand Lassalle",
        "en:night-watchman state"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "night watchman state"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "de",
        "3": "Nachtwächterstaat"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat",
      "name": "calque"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "night watchman states",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "night watchman state"
      },
      "expansion": "night watchman state (plural night watchman states)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms calqued from German",
        "English terms derived from German",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Forms of government",
        "en:Libertarianism"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Mark A. Graber, Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism, University of California Press, page 18",
          "text": "The doctrines of conservative liberalism were propounded by the late nineteenth century's leading intellectual proponents of the night watchman state.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 1, Tristram Hunt, “The coalition holds Britain's cultural fabric in contempt”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "For these neoLiberal Democrats of the Orange Book school remain determined to junk social liberalism for economic liberalism. Their guiding light is the Gladstonian ideal of a low tax, laissez-faire, “night-watchman state”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts."
      ],
      "qualifier": "political philosophy",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(political philosophy) Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "minarchy"
        },
        {
          "word": "minimal state"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ferdinand Lassalle",
        "en:night-watchman state"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "night-watchman state"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "nachtwakersstaat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "yövartijavaltio"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "État-gendarme"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Nachtwächterstaat"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Minimalstaat"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "estado vigilante nocturno"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "nattväktarstat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "night watchman state"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.