public

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English

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WOTD – 12 July 2024

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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The adjective and noun are derived from Late Middle English publik, publike (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public or public affairs; (noun) a generally observable place or situation”),[1] from Anglo-Norman public, publik, publique, Middle French public, publique, and Old French public (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public; official; (noun) community or its members collectively; nation, state; audience, spectators collectively”) (modern French public, publique (obsolete)); and from their etymon Latin pūblicus (“of or belonging to the community, people, or state; general, public”), an alteration of poplicus (influenced by pūbēs (“adult men; male population”)), from poplus (“community; the people, public; nation, state”) (later populus; from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”); further origin uncertain, possibly from Etruscan or from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -icus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).[2] Doublet of people.

The Middle English word displaced native Old English ceorlfolc and folclic.

The verb is derived from the adjective.[3]

Adjective

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public (comparative more public, superlative most public)

  2. Able to be known or seen by everyone; happening without concealment; open to general view. [from 14th c.]
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi], page 100, column 1:
      VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.
    • 1620, Ios. Hall [i.e., Joseph Hall], “[Contemplations vpon the History of the New Testament. The Second Booke.] The Marriage in Cana.”, in Contemplations [vpon the Principal Passages of the Holy Story], […], volume V, London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Henry Fetherstone, →OCLC, page 452:
      Thy [Jesus's] firſt publique miracle graceth a marriage; It is an ancient and laudable inſtitution, that the rites of matrimony ſhould not vvant a ſolemne celebration; VVhen are feaſts in ſeaſon, if not at the recouery of our loſt ribbe?
    • 1660, William Lower, transl., A Relation in Form of Journal, of the Voiage and Residence which the Most Excellent and Most Mighty Prince Charls the II King of Great Britain, &c. hath Made in Holland, from the 25 of May, to the 2 of June, 1660. […], The Hague: […] Adrian Vlack, →OCLC, page 4:
      The Parliament alſo permitted General [George] Monck to ſend Mr [Thomas] Clarges his brother-in-law, accompanied vvith ſome Officers of the Army, to aſſure his Majeſty [Charles II of England] of the fidelity and obedience of the Army; vvhich had made publick and ſolemn proteſtations thereof, after the Letter and Declaration vvas communicated unto them by the General.
    • 2011 April 18, Sandra Laville, “Paul Stephenson returns to desk at Metropolitan police”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-25:
      Earlier this month [Tim] Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
    • 2013 June 19, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are not merely out of control. They’re beyond control [print version: Our banks are out of control, 28 June 2013]”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[2], volume 189, number 3, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-31, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
  4. Open to all members of a community, as opposed to only a segment of it; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. [from 15th c.]
    public library    public park
    • 1861 January, “A Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Punsters”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics, volume VII, number XXXIX, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, […]; London: Trübner and Company, →OCLC, page 114, column 2:
      Our late distinguished townsman, Noah Dow, Esquire, as is well known, bequeathed a large portion of his fortune to this establishment,—"being thereto moved," as his will expressed it, "by the desire of N. Dowing some publick Institution for the benefit of Mankind."
    • 1975 December 13, Gerrie Leary, quotee, “‘State House’ Couple Fail To Get License”, in Marion E. Tholander, editor, Gay Community News, volume 3, number 24, Boston, Mass.: GCN, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, columns 2–3:
      The couple had hoped to be married on the actual steps of the State House but State House police made it impossible. Leary claimed that the police had told him that he would be "arrested" if he crossed the street. "They had no right to say that," he said. "The stairway there is a public stairway."
    • 2011 May 10, David Smith, “South African ‘baby safe’ condemned by child welfare groups”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-05-16:
      Officials say about 500 babies are abandoned each year in Western Cape province and that the number is increasing. Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
    • 2013 June 7, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama is like Apple, Google and Facebook: A once hip brand tainted by Prism [print version: Obama's once hip brand is now tainted, 14 June 2013]”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[4], volume 189, number 1, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-31, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
    2. (business) Of a company: having shares of stock traded publicly, for example, through a stock market.
  7. Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the government or state on behalf of the community, rather than by a private organization. [from 15th c.]
    public housing    public officer    public prosecutor    public servant
  8. Pertaining to a person in the capacity in which they deal with other people on a formal or official basis, as opposed to a personal or private capacity; official, professional.
    public face    public image
  10. (not comparable, by extension, object-oriented programming) Of an object: accessible to the program in general, not only to a class or subclass.
  11. (archaic)
    1. Pertaining to nations collectively, or to nations regarded as civilized; international, supernational.
    2. Now chiefly in public spirit and public-spirited: seeking to further the best interests or well-being of the community or nation.
    3. Now only in public figure: famous, prominent, well-known.
  12. (UK, education, chiefly historical) In some older universities in the United Kingdom: open or pertaining to the whole university, as opposed to a constituent college or an individual staff member or student.
  13. (obsolete)
    1. Of or pertaining to the human race as a whole; common, universal.
    2. Chiefly in make public: of a work: printed or otherwise published.
Alternative forms
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Antonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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pertaining to a person in the capacity in which they deal with other people on a formal or official basis — see official,‎ professional
pertaining to nations collectively, or to nations regarded as civilized — see international,‎ supernational
famous, prominent, well-known — see famous,‎ prominent,‎ well-known
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

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public (countable and uncountable, plural publics)

  1. (countable, uncountable) Chiefly preceded by the: members of the community or the people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.
    Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
    • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Thirde Booke] Chapter 19”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 325, recto:
      In ſũ [sum], you are a Prince, & a father of people, vvho ought vvith the eye of vviſdome, the hand of fortitude, and the hart of iuſtice to ſet dovvne all priuate conceits, in compariſon of vvhat for the publike is profitable.
    • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act V, signature O, verso:
      Here, you, the ſad reuengers / Of capitall crimes, againſt the Publicke, take / This man vnto your iuſtice: ſtrangle him.
    • 1665, Robert Boyle, “Occasional Reflections. Discourse XI. Upon a Danger Springing from an Unseasonable Contest with the Steersman.”, in [w:John Weyland], editor, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects. With a Discourse about Such Kind of Thoughts, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Alex[ander] Ambrose Masson; and sold by John Henry Parker, […], published 1848, →OCLC, section IV (Which Treats of Angling Improv’d to Spiritual Uses), page 238:
      [I]t is not only requisite that the Prince know how to command well, but that the Subjects obey well; and that even weak Counsel, faithfully assisted, and as much as may be rectified or repaired by those that are to Execute them, may less prejudice the publick, than the froward and jarring endeavours of Men, that perhaps would be wiser Rulers if they had a right to be so.
    • 1673, John Ray, “Of Venice”, in Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological; Made in a Journey through part of the Low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France: […], London: […] John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 154:
      And though the public be not ſo rich as it hath been, yet vvill it ſoon recover itſelf and grovv vvealthy again upon the enjoyment of Peace and free Commerce.
    • 1769, William Blackstone, “Of Offences against the Public Peace”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 151:
      [T]he only facts to be conſidered [in the crime of libel] are, firſt, the making or publiſhing of the book or vvriting; and ſecondly, vvhether the matter be criminal: and, if both theſe points are againſt the defendant, the offence againſt the public is complete.
    • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC, section 2; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
      Two or three months more went by; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichborne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest.
    • 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques, “Sarkozy plays the race card – and our establishment cheers”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎[8], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:
      [George Walker] Bush and [Tony] Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
  2. (countable)
    1. Preceded by a possessive determiner such as my, your, or their: a group of people who support a particular person, especially a performer, a writer, etc.; an audience, a following.
      Hyponyms: readership, viewership
      • 1823, [Walter Scott], “Introduction”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page xiii:
        By dint of drinking acid tiff, as above mentioned, and smoking segars, in which I am no novice, my Public are to be informed, that I gradually drank and smoked myself into a certain degree of acquaintance with un homme comme il faut [a decent man], one of the few fine old specimens of nobility who are still to be found in France; […]
    2. (informal) Short for public house (“an inn, a pub”); also (dated), in full public bar: the more basic bar in a public house, as contrasted with the lounge bar or saloon bar which has more comfortable seats, personalized service, etc.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pub
    3. (often public relations) Often preceded by the and a qualifying word: a particular demographic or group of people, or segment of the population, sharing some common characteristic.
      the cinema-going public    the reading public
      • 1817, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the objects originally proposed—Preface to the second edition—The ensuing controversy, its causes and acrimony—Philosophic definitions of a poem and poetry with scholia”, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, volume II, London: Rest Fenner, […], →OCLC, page 4:
        But year after year increased the number of Mr. [William] Wordsworth's admirers. They were found too not in the lower classes of the reading public, but chiefly among young men of strong sensibility and meditative minds; and their admiration (inflamed perhaps in some degree by opposition) was distinguished by its intensity, I might almost say, by its religious fervour.
      • 1843 December? (date written; published 1843 January), John Ruskin, “Art Criticism”, in [Alexander D. O. Wedderburn], editor, Arrows of the Chace: Being a Collection of Scattered Letters Published Chiefly in the Daily Newspapers,—1840–1880 […], volume I (Letters on Art and Science), Orpington, Kent [London]: George Allen, […], published 1880, →OCLC, part I (Art Criticism and Art Education), page 21:
        People continually forget that there is a separate public for every picture, and for every book. Appealed to with reference to any particular work, the public is that class of persons who possess the knowledge which it presupposes, and the faculties to which it is addressed. With reference to a new edition of [Isaac] Newton's Principia, the "public" means little more than the Royal Society. With reference to one of [William] Wordsworth's poems, it means all who have hearts.
      • 2005, Donald Treadwell, Jill B. Treadwell, “Theoretical Influences on Public Relations Writing”, in Public Relations Writing: Principles in Practice, 2nd edition, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; London: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 19:
        Generally, you as a public relations writer have multiple publics starting with your employer and your employer's publics (of course). To the extent that you will use them to reach many other publics, the news media will also be one of your publics.
      1. (sociology) A group of people sharing some common cultural, political, or social interest, but not necessarily having any interactions with each other.
    4. (obsolete)
      1. Chiefly preceded by the: a collective body of a politically organized nation or state; a body politic, a nation, a state; also, the interest or well-being of such a collective body; the common good.
        (well-being): Synonyms: (archaic or obsolete) commonweal, public interest, public good
      2. (US, university slang) At Harvard University: a penalty imposed on a student involving a grade reduction which is communicated to the student's parents or guardian.
  3. (uncountable) Chiefly in in public: the presence of spectators or people generally; the open.
Alternative forms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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group of people who support a particular person — see audience,‎ following
short for public house — see pub

Verb

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public (third-person singular simple present publics, present participle publicing, simple past and past participle publiced)

  1. (transitive, originally Scotland, archaic) To make (something) openly or widely known; to publicize, to publish.
Translations
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to make (something) openly or widely known — see publicise,‎ publish

Etymology 2

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Semantic loan from Russian па́блик (páblik) and Ukrainian па́блик (páblyk), па́блік (páblik, “public webpage on a blog or on social media”), both borrowed from English public: see etymology 1.

Noun

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public (plural publics)

  1. (non-native speakers’ English, neologism) An internet publication.
    • 2023 January 7, Alexander Grigoryev, “Russian public: PMC "Wagner" fighters report that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are using unidentified chemical weapons in Artemovsk”, in Military Review‎[9]:
      Russian publics report that the fighters of the Wagner group have already practically taken possession of Soledar, there are fights on the outskirts, where the Vushniks are trying to fight back in the salt mines.
    • 2023 December, Iryna Rudia, Vaiva Zuzevičiūtė, Olena Gogorenko, Public Security and Public Order‎[10], number 34, Kaunas: Mykolas Romeris University, →DOI, pages 219 of 218–225:
      Complex inductions are unconscious powerful components of influence. They include the following varieties:
      […] 4) Truisms. The term comes from the English word "true", which means "truth". Therefore, under truism it is accepted to understand banal truths, i.e. something that in principle does not require confirmation, but it is so banal and common knowledge that it is rather strange to base on it, but here again there is a "but". In our subconsciousness we perceive it as a certain axiom, and this axiom is interpreted by our subconsciousness itself. As an example, the phrase "In matters of war, Russia is Russia, and Ukraine is Ukraine" was repeatedly encountered in Russian publics. In principle, there is no sense in this phrase, because not a single fact is given. However, each of the readers interpreted it for himself, and putting the word "Russia" in the foreground makes a hint that Russia is stronger than Ukraine in military terms, but the phrase itself does not express such a meaning extra-linguistically.

References

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  1. ^ “pū̆blik(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “public, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “public, adj. and n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “public, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin pūblicus. The noun is from the adjective.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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public (feminine publique, masculine plural publics, feminine plural publiques)

  1. public (various meanings)
    1. (relational) of the people as a whole; public [from 1238]
      l’intérêt public ― the public interest
      le bien public ― the public good
      La voix publique est pour lui. ― The public voice is for him.
    2. public; seen or known by everyone [from 1330]
      C’est une nouvelle qui est déjà publique. ― It's already public news.
    3. public; representing the state on behalf of the community [from 1390]
      Synonym: étatique
      pouvoirs publics ― public powers
      notaire public ― public notary
    4. public; open to all [from 1538]
      Synonym: commun
      lieu public ― public place
      fille publique ― streetwalker, prostitute (literally, “public girl”)

Derived terms

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Noun

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public m (plural publics)

  1. public (people in general) [from 1320]
    • 2015 October 3, Romain Gueugneau, “Le smartphone tout terrain s’aventure dans le grand public”, in LesEchos‎[11]:
      Et la demande augmente dans le grand public.
      And the demand is increasing amongst the general public.
  2. audience [from 1671]
    Il devait plaire à son public. ― He had to please his audience.
    • 2016, Claudine Monfette, Robert Charlebois, Pierre Nadeau (lyrics and music), “Ordinaire”, in Encore un soir‎[12], performed by Céline Dion:
      Quand je chante, c’est pour le public
      When I sing, it's for the audience

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Ladin

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Adjective

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public m pl

  1. plural of publich

Occitan

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Etymology

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From Latin publicus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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public m (feminine singular publica, masculine plural publics, feminine plural publicas)

  1. public
    Antonym: privat

Derived terms

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Noun

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public m (plural publics)

  1. public, audience

Old French

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Alternative forms

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Adjective

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public m (oblique and nominative feminine singular publique)

  1. public (not private; available to the general populace)

Derived terms

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References

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French public, from Latin publicus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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public m or n (feminine singular publică, masculine plural publici, feminine and neuter plural publice)

  1. public

Declension

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Declension of public
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite public publică publici publice
definite publicul publica publicii publicele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite public publice publici publice
definite publicului publicei publicilor publicelor

Noun

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public n (plural publice)

  1. the public
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