Chinese
民主
/min³⁵ ʈ͡ʂu²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
democracy
- HSK 6
- TOCFL 6
Etymology graph
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Origin
In Classical Chinese, 民主 meant "sovereign", as in 民之主, or "ruler of the people". This was repurposed in the mid-1860s to mean "democracy", "democratic" during the translation of the book Elements of International Law.
From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Lineage
- characterChinese民 “people; citizens”
- characterChinese主 “owner; master”
Sources
- HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
- 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
- Written form — n/a
- Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wiktionary: 民主