Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Isonomy
/aɪˈsɒnəmi/noun
Equality of political rights, and equal standing before the law.
The Greek roots
ἴσος
ísos
equal, same
νόμος
nómos
law, custom
Literally: “equal law”
The story of the word
Isonomia was the slogan before democracy was. In Herodotus, when three Persian nobles debate what constitution to adopt, Otanes calls isonomia the fairest of all names, and Athenian drinking songs praised the tyrant-slayers for giving the city equal laws. νόμος covers law and custom together, and its other descendants run from astronomy to economy, the law of the household.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
autonomyeconomyastronomyisobarantinomy
In a sentence
The reformers spoke of isonomy rather than democracy, and meant something narrower by it.