plebiscitum

plebiscitum

English

Etymology

From Latin plēbs, plēbis (“common people”) + scītum (“decree”). Compare plebiscite.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌplɛbəˈsaɪtəm/, /ˌplibəˈsaɪtəm/

Noun

plebiscitum (plural plebiscitums or plebiscita)

1. (historical, Roman antiquity) A law enacted by the common people, under the superintendence of a tribune or some subordinate plebeian magistrate, without the intervention of the senate.
   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

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

Quotations

• 1894, Constance Garnett (translator); Leo Tolstoy (author), The Kingdom of God is Within You, Kshetra Books, →ISBN, page 87:

  The propositions of M. 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.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)