psephisma

English

Etymology

From Latin psēphisma, and its source, Ancient Greek ψήφισμα (psḗphisma).

Noun

psephisma (plural psephismata)

1. (Ancient Greece) A psephism. [from 17th c.]
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France:

     The ruin of the antient democracies was, that they ruled […] by occasional decrees, psephismata.

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ψήφισμα (psḗphisma).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /pseːˈpʰis.ma/, [ps̠eːˈpʰɪs̠mä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pseˈfis.ma/, [pseˈfizmä]

Noun

psēphisma n (genitive psēphismatis); third declension

1. plebiscite
2. ordinance of the people

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	psēphisma	psēphismata
genitive	psēphismatis	psēphismatum
dative	psēphismatī	psēphismatibus
accusative	psēphisma	psēphismata
ablative	psēphismate	psēphismatibus
vocative	psēphisma	psēphismata

References

• “psephisma”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “psephisma”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• psephisma in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• psephisma in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “psephisma”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “psephisma”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin