self-governedadj.
/ˌsɛlfˈɡʌvənd/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfˈɡəvərnd/ 1.
a. Of a state, institution, community, or other body: that administers its own affairs without external direction or intervention; autonomous.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > autonomy > [adjective]
self-governed1570
autonomous1800
1570 T. Wilson tr. Demosthenes 3 Orations iii. 79 Wee are to make warre against the personne of a man, and not against the force of any selfe gouerned state [Gk. συνεστώσης πόλεως].
1779 St. James's Chron. 6 Apr. Sentiments of Civil Liberty..to which we owe..all our Dignity and Happiness as a free or self-governed Country.
1859 J. Brown Let. 19 Aug. (1912) 171 Frankfort is a little Republic, self-governed, and a thriving, handsome, well-conditioned town.
1886 A. V. Dicey England's Case against Home Rule vii. 198 The constitutional relations existing between England and a self-governed colony.
1922 Polit. Sci. Q. 37 425 Nor would the recognition of the neutrality of the self-governed colonies deprive them of the power of aiding the Mother Country in any just and necessary war.
1975 Leader-Times (Kittanning, Pa.) 21 Sept. 20/2 The George Junior Republic, the self-governed teen-age community located here about 10 miles from Ithaca.
2012 Current Anthropol. 53 549/2 Anarchic societies are not ungoverned societies but rather self-governed societies.
b. Of a person or his or her attributes, behaviour, etc.: characterized by self-control.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > autonomy > [adjective] > possessed of autonomy
self-ruling1645
self-directing1655
autonomical1659
autonomous1673
self-governed1780
self-controlled1781
autonomic1810
autonomistica1870
self-governing1880
society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > [adjective] > self-controlled
collected1694
self-governed1780
1780 Let. to Rev. Mr. Madan, conc. Thelypthora 57 Every bishop or deacon..must be more blameless, less addicted to riot or unruliness, than his fellow-christians: more self-governed.
1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. II. iv. vii. 320 They will require that their conduct and condition shall be essentially self-governed.
1883 M. Morris Bk. of Health 378 Reasonably self-governed beings.
1926 L. Lewisohn Up Stream x. 280 The good man who is also the good citizen is the man of self-governed mind.
2002 L. Groarke Good Rebel vi. 187 He was unable to control his appetites in any appropriate fashion. He was not..self-governed.
2. More widely: having control of one's (or its) own movements, actions, choices, etc.; not controlled or influenced by another; independent.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > independence > [adjective] > not influenced by others
self-lived1642
self-governed1709
self-guided1733
independent1735
uninfluenced1735
sole1747
go-alone1807
autonomic1810
maverick1886
go-it-alone1895
1709 Ld. Shaftesbury Moralists ii. 150 I suppose you will send your Disciple to seek for Deity in Mechanism; that is to say, in some exquisite System of self-govern'd Matter.
1749 Ess. Atheism & Deism 76 All finite Things demonstrate that they are not self-made, nor self-governed, but are the Product of an eternal, immense and ever active prolifick and productive Being.
1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion v. 218 How few who mingle with their fellow-men And still remain self-governed, and apart. View more context for this quotation
1847 C. G. F. Gore Castles in Air i New works derived from the London library, to which my self-governed sisters were subscribers.
1940 W. H. Auden Coll. Poems (1994) 232 The well-armed children everywhere Who envy the self-governed beast.
1996 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 23 Nov. d6 DiFranco hasn't sold out her principles. She's still a self-governed woman, still at the wheel of her work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1570