plebiscitum

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin plēbiscītum, plēbis scītum, plēbī scītum (“law of the common people or plebs”), from plēbis (the genitive singular of plēbs (“common people, plebeians”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + scītum (“decree, ordinance, statute”) (from scīscō (“to ascertain; to know; to decree, enact, ordain”) (from sciō (“to know; to understand”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”)) + -scō (suffix meaning ‘to begin [doing something]’)) + -tum (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌplɛbɪˈsaɪtəm/, /ˌpliː-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌplɛbəˈsaɪtəm/, /ˌpli-/, [-ɾəm]
• Hyphenation: ple‧bi‧sci‧tum

Noun

plebiscitum (plural plebiscitums or plebiscita)

1. (Ancient Rome, historical) A law enacted by the common people, under the superintendence of a tribune or some subordinate plebeian magistrate, without the intervention of the senate.

   Synonym: plebiscite

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

     Still worse went it with another individual; doomed, by extempore Plebiscitum, to the Lanterne; […]

2. Synonym of plebiscite (“a direct popular vote on an issue of public importance, such as an amendment to the constitution, a change in the sovereignty of the nation, or some government policy; a referendum”)
   • 1894, Leo Tolstoy, “Attitude of Men of the Present Day to War”, in Constance Garnett, transl., “The Kingdom of God is within You”: Christianity Not as a Mystic Religion, but as a New Theory of Life […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Cassell Publishing Co. […], →OCLC, page 144:

     The propositions of M[axime] du Camp are as follows: […] 3. No war to be declared before it has been submitted to a plebiscitum of the nations preparing to take part in it.

Translations

law enacted by the common people, under the superintendence of a tribune or some subordinate plebeian magistrate, without the intervention of the senate

• Finnish: kansanpäätös
• Latin: plēbiscītum n, psēphisma n
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: plebiscyt (pl) m, plebiscitum (pl) n

synonym of plebiscite — see plebiscite

Further reading

• referendum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “plebiscitum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Alternative forms

• plēbī scītum, plēbeī scītum

Etymology

plēbs +‎ scītum

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /pleː.bisˈkiː.tum/, [pɫ̪eːbɪs̠ˈkiːt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ple.biʃˈʃi.tum/, [plebiʃˈʃiːt̪um]

Noun

plēbiscītum n (genitive plēbiscītī); second declension

1. plebiscite, decree of the people, which originally applied only to the plēbs and not the patricians

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	plēbiscītum	plēbiscīta
Genitive	plēbiscītī	plēbiscītōrum
Dative	plēbiscītō	plēbiscītīs
Accusative	plēbiscītum	plēbiscīta
Ablative	plēbiscītō	plēbiscītīs
Vocative	plēbiscītum	plēbiscīta

Descendants

• Catalan: plebiscit
• English: plebiscite
• French: plébiscite
• Galician: plebiscito
• German: Plebiszit
• Italian: plebiscito
• Portuguese: plebiscito
• Spanish: plebiscito