"commonweal" meaning in English

See commonweal in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌkɒmənˈwiːl/ Forms: commonweals [plural]
Etymology: From common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”). From c. 1450, common wele was used as a compound. Rollison (2017) thinks that comun and wele may already have been used in collocation in 14th-century Middle English. By the 1520s used by some authors as the equivalent of res publica (republic), alongside commonwealth from about the same time. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|common|weal|t1=public|t2=well-being}} common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} commonweal (plural commonweals)
  1. (obsolete or archaic) The common good; public wellbeing or prosperity Tags: archaic, obsolete
    Sense id: en-commonweal-en-noun-QFOdwT7t Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 85 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 82 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 85 15
  2. The body politic; republic
    Sense id: en-commonweal-en-noun-mUedeM6d
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: common weal Derived forms: commonwealth

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "commonwealth"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "common",
        "3": "weal",
        "t1": "public",
        "t2": "well-being"
      },
      "expansion": "common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”). From c. 1450, common wele was used as a compound.\nRollison (2017) thinks that comun and wele may already have been used in collocation in 14th-century Middle English.\nBy the 1520s used by some authors as the equivalent of res publica (republic), alongside commonwealth from about the same time.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "commonweals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "commonweal (plural commonweals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XIII, In Parliament”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):",
          "text": "He had to judge the people as justice Errant […]; to equip his milites, send them duly in war-time to the King; — strive every way that the Commonweal, in his quarter of it, take no damage.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995 May 21, Steven Levy, “The Unabomber and David Gelernter”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "He yearns for the days when people, for reasons of the commonweal, did what they were told.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The common good; public wellbeing or prosperity"
      ],
      "id": "en-commonweal-en-noun-QFOdwT7t",
      "links": [
        [
          "common",
          "common"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "public",
          "public"
        ],
        [
          "wellbeing",
          "wellbeing"
        ],
        [
          "prosperity",
          "prosperity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete or archaic) The common good; public wellbeing or prosperity"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1531, Thomas Elyot, chapter I, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], →OCLC:",
          "text": "[...] hit semeth that men haue ben longe abused in calling Rempublica a commune weale. And they which do suppose it so to be called for that, that euery thinge shulde be to all men in commune without discrepance of any astate or condition, be ther to moued more by sensualite, than by any good reason or inclination to humanite. [...] And consequently there may appere lyke deuersitie to be englisshe, betwene a publike weale & a commune weale, as shulde be in latin betwene Res publica and Res plebeia.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The body politic; republic"
      ],
      "id": "en-commonweal-en-noun-mUedeM6d",
      "links": [
        [
          "body politic",
          "body politic"
        ],
        [
          "republic",
          "republic"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌkɒmənˈwiːl/"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "common weal"
    }
  ],
  "word": "commonweal"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "commonwealth"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "common",
        "3": "weal",
        "t1": "public",
        "t2": "well-being"
      },
      "expansion": "common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From common (“public”) + weal (“well-being”). From c. 1450, common wele was used as a compound.\nRollison (2017) thinks that comun and wele may already have been used in collocation in 14th-century Middle English.\nBy the 1520s used by some authors as the equivalent of res publica (republic), alongside commonwealth from about the same time.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "commonweals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "commonweal (plural commonweals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XIII, In Parliament”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):",
          "text": "He had to judge the people as justice Errant […]; to equip his milites, send them duly in war-time to the King; — strive every way that the Commonweal, in his quarter of it, take no damage.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995 May 21, Steven Levy, “The Unabomber and David Gelernter”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "He yearns for the days when people, for reasons of the commonweal, did what they were told.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The common good; public wellbeing or prosperity"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "common",
          "common"
        ],
        [
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        [
          "public",
          "public"
        ],
        [
          "wellbeing",
          "wellbeing"
        ],
        [
          "prosperity",
          "prosperity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete or archaic) The common good; public wellbeing or prosperity"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1531, Thomas Elyot, chapter I, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], →OCLC:",
          "text": "[...] hit semeth that men haue ben longe abused in calling Rempublica a commune weale. And they which do suppose it so to be called for that, that euery thinge shulde be to all men in commune without discrepance of any astate or condition, be ther to moued more by sensualite, than by any good reason or inclination to humanite. [...] And consequently there may appere lyke deuersitie to be englisshe, betwene a publike weale & a commune weale, as shulde be in latin betwene Res publica and Res plebeia.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The body politic; republic"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "body politic",
          "body politic"
        ],
        [
          "republic",
          "republic"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌkɒmənˈwiːl/"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "common weal"
    }
  ],
  "word": "commonweal"
}

Download raw JSONL data for commonweal meaning in English (3.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). 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.

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