Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Politician
/ˌpɒlɪˈtɪʃən/noun
A person who holds or seeks elected office.
The Greek roots
πόλις
pólis
city, city-state
πολιτικός
politikós
of the citizens
Literally: “one who deals with the city”
The story of the word
Πολιτικός meant belonging to the citizens, and Aristotle's Πολιτικά is a study of how a city can be arranged. The English noun starts out in the sixteenth century meaning a schemer, and Shakespeare uses it as an insult. Police, policy and polity all come from the same πόλις, which also gave every city name ending in -polis.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Middle French → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
politicspolicepolicymetropoliscosmopolitan
In a sentence
No politician wants to be the one who closes the hospital.