shopocratadj.n.
/ˈʃɒpəkrat/, U.S. /ˈʃɑpəˌkræt/ Now historical.
A. adj.
Of or relating to the shopocracy (shopocracy n.). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [adjective] > shopkeeper or tradesman
souterly1534
weaverly1643
shopocrat1832
shopkeeperish1840
shoemakerish1866
1832 Poor Man's Guardian 29 Dec. 658/2 A shopocrat Parliament.
1850 H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 30 Nov. 189/2 In this way arose the system of Shopocrat Socialism [Ger. der kleinbürgerliche Socialismus]. Sismondi is the head of this school, in England as well as in France.
a1988 F. Ewen Half-cent. Greatness (2007) i. i. 7 The ‘shopocrat’ franchise recently perpetrated was a fraud.
B. n.
A member of the shopocracy; a shopkeeper enjoying social status and influence.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > shopkeeper or tradesman
cit1633
shopocrat1841
1841 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 50 63 We have left behind the regions of the great merchants, and of the shopocrats.
1861 Sydney Morning Herald 21 Dec. 7/1 A worse spirit than anything I have ever read of in America is constantly displaying itself among the factory squires and shopocrats of England.
1969 E. C. Midwinter Social Admin. Lancs. 22 Their grave suspicion of state intervention matched the growing local pride of the North Western ‘shopocrats’.
2004 D. Black Helen Macfarlane 165 German socialists were not wanting in due appreciation of their mission, to be the grandiloquent representatives of the German shopocrats.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1832