| 释义 |
republic, n. (and a.)|rɪˈpʌblɪk|
Also 7 -ique, -ike, 7–8 -ick; 7 rei-.
[ad. F. république or L. rēspublica (abl. rēpublicā), f. rēs thing, affair + publicus public a.]
†1. The state, the common weal. Obs.
1603Drayton Bar. Wars ii. x, Neither yet thinke, by their vnnaturall Fight What the republique suffred them among. 1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. v. §5. 78 Those men are of most trouble to the Republique, who haue most leasure to be idle. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. iii. 41 The Republick might be highly endangered by an Inter-Regnum.
2. a. A state in which the supreme power rests in the people and their elected representatives or officers, as opposed to one governed by a king or similar ruler; a commonwealth. Now also applied loosely to any state which claims this designation.
1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Republike, a Commonwealth. a1626Bacon Ch. Controv. Wks. 1879 I. 347 It may be, in civil states, a republic is a better policy than a kingdom. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §155 The Army..would depose the King, change the Government, and settle a Republick by their own Rules. 1727C. Colden Hist. Five Ind. Nat. p. xv, Each Nation is an absolute Republick by its self, govern'd in all Publick Affairs of War and Peace by the Sachems or Old Men. 1771Junius Lett. lix. (1788) 316 When I impute to him a speculative predilection in favour of a republic. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Heroism Wks. (Bohn) I. 110 Whatever outrages have happened to men may befal a man again; and very easily in a republic. 1884Q. Rev. CLVII. 2 The success of the United States has sustained the credit of Republics—a word..which has lately come to have the additional meaning of a government resting on a widely-extended suffrage. 1947E. Waugh Scott-King's Mod. Europe 4 Out of it [sc. history] emerged the present republic of Neutralia, a typical modern state, governed by a single party, acclaiming a dominant Marshal, supporting a vast ill-paid bureaucracy whose work is tempered and humanised by corruption. 1976Whitaker's Almanack 1977 829/2 Republic of Burundi... Burundi became independent as a Constitutional monarchy but this was overthrown on November 28, 1966. The Constitution and Parliament were also abolished. The President rules through a Cabinet of Ministers and the UPRONA party apparatus. Burundi is a one-Party State.
b. Applied to particular states having this form of constitution.
1631Heylin St. George 349 The publike honours done unto him, by the greatest Princes and Republicks in the Christian world. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 25 The Reipublicks of Pisa and Siena. 1654tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 26 Were it not much better for the Republique of Venice..? 1726–46Thomson Winter 505 Servius, the king who laid the solid base On which o'er earth the vast republic spread. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 110 These commonwealths will not long bear a state of subjection to the republick of Paris. 1833Penny Cycl. I. 447/2 The republic of the United States of America..consists of twenty-four states, and three territories. 1882Hinsdale Garfield & Educ. ii. 359 The Republic has the right to call on all her children for service.
c. Without article: Republican constitution or government. rare—1.
1791Burke Let. Member Nat. Assembly Wks. 1792 III. 340 The existence of such an executive officer, in such a system of republic..is absurd in the highest degree.
3. fig. and transf.
a. Any community of persons, animals, etc., in which there is a certain equality among the members.
1750Johnson Rambler No. 77 ⁋8 He..may be considered as not unprofitable to the great republic of humanity. 1789Washington in Eliot Hist. Harvard Coll. (1848) 152 It gives me sincere satisfaction to learn the flourishing state of your literary republic. 1818Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xviii. (ed. 2) II. 114 The large females, like the female wasps, are the original founders of their republics. 1869J. Martineau Ess. II. 15 Our nature is a republic of equal principles.
b. the republic of letters, the collective body of those engaged in literary pursuits; the field of literature itself.
1702Addison Dial. Medals i. 19 Pray consider what a figure a man would make in the republick of letters [etc.]. 1739Hume Hum. Nat. i. vii. (1874) I. 325 One of the greatest..discoveries that has been made of late years in the republic of letters. a1808Bp. Hurd Notes Addison's Tatler No. 159, The satire contained in this paper..I doubt, has done no small hurt in the republic of letters. 1870Burton Hist. Scot. (1873) VI. lxvi. 63 There was another field of exertion..in the republic of letters.
4. attrib. (passing into adj.) Of the nature of, characteristic of, pertaining to, a republic or republics; republican. Now rare or Obs.
1638Mayne Lucian (1664) A iv, Who..do defile the English Tongue with their Republick words, which are..scarce significant to a Monarchicall understanding. 1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 787 The Republick Cities and Countries of Greece. 1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1251 To Crows..And Choughs and Daws, and such republic birds. 1710E. Ward Brit. Hud. 2 When our Good Sov'reign Lords the People Were Crown'd by a Republick Cripple. 1755Monitor No. 13 I. 111 Let the republic German Princes..unite for their common safety! |