| 释义 |
commonwealth|ˈkɒmənwɛlθ|
Forms: see common a. and wealth.
[In its history, like prec.; wealth, ME. welthe, being a later formation, in same sense as weal, OE. wela. The two words were used indiscriminately by Skelton and others, in senses 1 and 2; but in the 16th c. commonwealth became the ordinary English term in sense 2 (and 5), and it was in connexion with this that the later senses 3, 4 (with corresp. use of 5) were developed. Sense 1, if used, is now pronounced as two words ˈcommon ˈwealth; this pronunciation was formerly the usual one, and still occurs occasionally in the other senses. Cf. note under common-place.]
†1. Public welfare; general good or advantage. Obs. in ordinary use: see common-weal.
c1470Harding Chron. cxxiv. xiii, He dyd the commen wealthe sustene. a1528Skelton Vox Populi 318 And so marreth..The comonwelthe of eche sytte. 1530Palsgr. 207/1 Common welthe, bien publique. 1553S. Cabot Ordinances in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 261 To the common wealth and benefite of the whole companie and mysterie. 1679Burnet Hist. Ref. 25 The common wealth of a whole realm was chiefly to be looked at. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Charac. Wks. (Bohn) II. 64 They choose that welfare which is compatible with the commonwealth. 1871Ruskin Fors Clav. vii. 13 Whether you are striving for a Common-Wealth or for a Common-Illth.
2. The whole body of people constituting a nation or state, the body politic; a state, an independent community, esp. viewed as a body in which the whole people have a voice or an interest.
1513Douglas æneis, Pref. note bk. vii, It is vertew that euer has promoued commoun welthys. 1534Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) H vj b, Of diuers men, and one lorde, is composed a common welth. a1577Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1609) 11 A common-wealth is called a society..of a multitude of free men, collected together, and vnited by common accord and couenants among themselues. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. i. (1627) 3 The certaine good..both unto Church and Common-wealth. 1690Locke Govt. ii. x. §133 By Commonwealth, I..mean, not a Democracy, or any Form of Government, but any independent Community which the Latins signified by the word Civitas. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 145 ⁋3 Men..content to fill up the lowest class of the commonwealth. 1855H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. v. 150 Not only the kingly commonwealth of England, but the republican commonwealth of America.
fig.1601Shakes. All's Well i. i. 137 It is not politicke, in the Common-wealth of Nature, to preserue virginity.
3. a. A state in which the supreme power is vested in the people; a republic or democratic state.
a1618Raleigh Maxims St. (1651) 8 A Common-wealth is the swerving or depravation of a Free, or popular State, or the Government of the whole Multitude of the base and poorer Sort, without respect of the other Orders. 1667Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 461 Better things were done, and better managed..under a Commonwealth than under a King. a1714Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 63 This shows how impossible it is to set up a Commonwealth in England. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. i. 7 The career of..the Dutch Commonwealth.
b. A state of the United States of America, esp. in the official titles of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
1779Pennsylvania Gaz. 24 Mar. 4/3 All the best whigs in the commonwealth. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 228 The sturdy commonwealths which have sprung from the seed of the Mayflower. 1967Boston Herald 1 Apr. 3/1 The Commonwealth has been married to the Sales tax a year Saturday. Like many marriages, it hasn't lived altogether up to expectations but it's become essential anyway.
4. a. Eng. Hist. The republican government established in England between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660.
1649Act Parlt. 19 May, Be it Declared and Enacted by this present Parliament, and by the authority of the same, That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging are, and shall be, and are hereby Constituted, Made, Established, and Confirmed to be a Commonwealth and Free State; and shall henceforward be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the Supreme Authority of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers for the good of the People, and that without any King or House of Lords. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. (1843) 784/2 The parliament, as soon as they had settled their commonwealth..sent ambassadors to their sister republic, the States of the United Provinces. 1711Addison Spect. No. 55 ⁋2 The Commonwealth, when it was in its height of Power and Riches. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. Introd. §25 In the time of the commonwealth this spectacle was discontinued. 1862R. Vaughan Eng. Nonconf. 443 In the days of the Long Parliament and of the Commonwealth.
b. The title of the federated states of Australia.
1891Proc. & Deb. Nat. Australas. Convention Mar.–Apr. p. cxxix, Draft of a bill to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia. Ibid. p. cxxx, The name ‘The Commonwealth of Australia’ or ‘The Commonwealth’ shall be taken to mean the Commonwealth of Australia as constituted under this Act. 1900Act 63 & 64 Vict. c. 12 §3 The people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. 1925M. Terry Across Unknown Australia i. 18 The Commonwealth is nearly as big as the United States of America. 1966Style Man. for Austral. Govt. Publications 39 The ranks and decorations of members of the Commonwealth Parliament, senior Commonwealth officers and others, and the names and addresses of Commonwealth departments are shown in the Commonwealth Directory.
c. In full British Commonwealth (of Nations), the association of Great Britain and certain self-governing nations which were formerly dominions or colonies, together with all her dependencies and theirs, mostly owing allegiance to the British sovereign; = British Empire (see British a. 2 b). Commonwealth Day (formerly Empire Day), second Monday in March.
[1884Earl of Rosebery Speech 18 Jan. in Adelaide Observer 26 Jan. 34/2 The British Empire is a commonwealth of nations.] 1917J. C. Smuts British Commonwealth of Nations 5 The British Empire is much more than a State... We are a system..of nations and states..who govern themselves, who have been evolved on the principles of your constitutional system, now almost independent states, and who belong to this group, to this community of nations, which I prefer to call the British Commonwealth of nations. 1926Rep. Comm. Inter-Imperial Relations in Times 22 Nov. 9/1 Status of Great Britain and the Dominions... They are autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. 1937Discovery Feb. 33/2 The field of organised interchange of scientific effort may one day be wider even than the British Commonwealth. 1940W. S. Churchill in Hansard 18 June 61 So bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ 1947Times 3 July 4/5 It has for some time been clear..that the titles of the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and the Dominions Office..should now be changed and steps are accordingly being taken..to alter the titles to Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and Commonwealth Relations Office respectively. 1958New Statesman 15 Feb. 186/2 What has happened to Mr Macmillan during his Commonwealth tour? 1958Times 19 Dec. 10/2 It is proposed to change the name of Empire Day forthwith to Commonwealth Day.
5. transf. and fig.
a. Applied in various ways to a body or a number of persons united by some common interest; e.g. commonwealth of learning, the whole body of learned men, the ‘republic of letters’; commonwealth of nations: see quot. 1796.
1551Turner Herbal i. Prol. A ij b, The hole common welth of all Christendome. 1608–11Bp. Hall Medit. ii. §82 The whole heavenly commonwealth of angels. 1664Power Exp. Philos. ii. 90 Torricellius..to whom all the Common-wealth of Learning are exceedingly oblieg'd. 1712W. Rogers Voy. 311 In the Government of our sailing Common-wealth. 1796Burke Regic. Peace Wks. VIII. 182 The writers on publick law have often called this aggregate of [European] nations a commonwealth. They had reason. It is virtually one great state having the same basis of general law; with some diversity of provincial customs and local establishments. 1814Wordsw. Excurs. iv. 348 Through all the mighty commonwealth of things Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 230 Any German or Italian principality..was a more important member of the commonwealth of nations.
b. Theatr. A company of actors who share the receipts instead of receiving salaries.
1824J. Decastro Mem. 97 To constitute a kind of commonwealth; and whatever their different engagements produced was to form a general fund. 1886L. Outram in Dram. Rev. 27 Mar. 83/1 Fourth-class theatres, commonwealths, fit-up tours, and such venues of experience.
†6. An appellation of the Norfolk insurgents of 1549 (or their adherents). Obs.
1549Sir A. Aucher in Froude Hist. Eng. V. 204 note, Men called Commonwealths, and their adherents..have been sent up and come away without punishment. And that Commonwealth, called Latimer, hath gotten the pardon of others..There was never none that ever spake as vilely as these called Commonwealths does.
7. attrib.
1592Nashe P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.) 68 Cloaking of bad actions with common-wealth pretences. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 157, I come to talke of Common-wealth Affayres. 1654E. Johnson Wonder-wrkg. Provid. 129 Compleating the Colonies in Church and Common-wealth-work. 1695Eng. Anc. Const. Eng. 2 Much censured as savouring of commonwealth principles.
▸ Commonwealth of Independent States n.after Russian Sodružestvo nezavisimyx gosudarstv a confederation of many former constituent republics of the Soviet Union, formally established in 1991 following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Abbreviated C.I.S.
Since 1994 the member states have been: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
[1989Independent 4 Dec. 8/1 [Gorbachev] set out his vision of the Common European Home, a ‘commonwealth of independent states’. ]1991Washington Post 9 Dec. a1/1 The leaders of Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia formally announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union today and said they had agreed to establish ‘a Commonwealth of Independent States’ in its place. 1994M. Ebon KGB: Death & Rebirth iii. xiii. 128 Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus..formed the core of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that emerged from the ashes of the USSR. 2001Air Safety Week (Electronic ed.) 20 Feb. The fatal accident rate of these [sc. unscheduled] carriers is about 500 times greater over the past five years than the record scheduled carriers have achieved in the many nations now comprising the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). |