republic

Definitions

Not re- + public, but a frozen Latin phrase: rēs pūblica = 'the public thing / public affair' (rēs 'thing, matter' + pūblica 'public'). To the Romans the state was the common property of all citizens, not the possession of a king. So a republic is, at root, 'the country that belongs to its people' — which is why a republic has no monarch.

Why It Means This

Republic is the family member whose meaning jumps furthest from 'public.' It comes whole from the Latin phrase rēs pūblica, 'the public affair' — the Roman name for the state seen as the shared property of all citizens rather than something a king owns. So the defining feature of a republic is the absence of a monarch: the country belongs to the people. The English word commonwealth ('common-weal,' the common good) was coined precisely to translate rēs pūblica into native English. The 're-' at the start is not the prefix 're-'; it's the leftover of rēs, 'thing.'

Common Collocations

• 1.federal republic联邦共和国
• 2.banana republic腐败无能的小国
• 3.declare a republic宣布建立共和国
• 4.people's republic人民共和国
• 5.the Roman Republic罗马共和国

Example Sentences

• 1.

  After the king was overthrown, the country became a republic.

• 2.

  France is a republic, while the United Kingdom is a monarchy.

• 3.

  The ancient Roman Republic lasted nearly five hundred years.

Easily Confused

republic vs democracy — they answer different questions. A republic is about the form of the state: no monarch, power held by the people/representatives. A democracy is about who decides: rule by the people, by voting. A country can be both (most modern republics are democratic), but the words aren't synonyms — the UK is a democracy but not a republic, and a republic could in theory be undemocratic.