psephisma

English

Etymology

From Latin psēphisma, and its source, Ancient Greek ψήφισμα (psḗphisma).

Noun

psephisma (plural psephismata)

  1. (Ancient Greece) A psephism. [from 17th c.]
    • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France:
      The ruin of the antient democracies was, that they ruled […] by occasional decrees, psephismata.

Latin

Etymology

    Borrowed from Ancient Greek ψήφισμα (psḗphisma).

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    psēphisma n (genitive psēphismatis); third declension

    1. plebiscite
    2. ordinance of the people

    Declension

    Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

    References

    • “psephisma”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • “psephisma”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • "psephisma", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
    • “psephisma”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
    • “psephisma”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • “psephisma”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin