Forms: see COMMON a. and WEALTH. [In its history, like prec.: wealth, ME. welthe, being a later formation, in same sense as weal, OE. wela. The two words were used indiscriminately by Skelton and others, in senses 1 and 2; but in the 16th c. commonwealth became the ordinary English term in sense 2 (and 5), and it was in connection with this that the later senses 3, 4 (with corresp. use of 5) were developed. Sense 1, if used, is now pronounced as two words co·mmon wea·lth; this pronunciation was formerly the usual one, and still occurs occasionally in the other senses. Cf. note under COMMON-PLACE.]
† 1. Public welfare; general good or advantage. Obs. in ordinary use: see COMMON-WEAL.
c. 1470. Harding, Chron. CXXIV. xiii. He dyd the commen wealthe sustene.
a. 1528. Skelton, Vox Populi, 318. And so marreth … The comonwelthe of eche sytte.
1530. Palsgr., 207/1. Common welthe, bien publique.
1553. S. Cabot, Ordinances, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 261. To the common wealth and benefite of the whole companie and mysterie.
1679. Burnet, Hist. Ref., 25. The common wealth of a whole realm was chiefly to be looked at.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Charac., Wks. (Bohn), II. 64. They choose that welfare which is compatible with the commonwealth.
1871. Ruskin, Fors Clav., VII. 13. Whether you are striving for a Common-Wealth or for a Common-Illth.
2. The whole body of people constituting a nation or state, the body politic; a state, an independent community, esp. viewed as a body in which the whole people have a voice or interest.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Pref. note bk., VII. It is vertew that euer has promoued commoun welthys.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), H vj b. Of diuers men, and one lorde, is composed a common welth.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 11. A common-wealth is called a society… of a multitude of free men, collected together, and vnited by common accord and couenants among themselues.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., i. (1627), 3. The certaine good … both unto Church and Common-wealth.
1690. Locke, Govt., II. x. § 133. By Commonwealth, I … mean, not a Democracy, or any Form of Government, but any independent Community which the Latins signified by the word Civitas.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 145, ¶ 3. Men … content to fill up the lowest class of the commonwealth.
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., v. 150. Not only the kingly commonwealth of England, but the republican commonwealth of America.
fig. 1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 137. It is not politicke, in the Common-wealth of Nature, to preserue virginity.
3. A state in which the supreme power is vested in the people; a republic or democratic state.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Maxims St. (1651), 8. A Common-wealth is the swerving or depravation of a Free, or popular State, or the Government of the whole Multitude of the base and poorer Sort, without respect of the other Orders.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 461. Better things were done, and better managed … under a Commonwealth than under a King.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 63. This shows how impossible it is to set up a Commonwealth in England.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 7. The career of … the Dutch Commonwealth.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 228. The sturdy commonwealths which have sprung from the seed of the Mayflower.
4. Eng. Hist. The republican government established in England between the execution of Charles I. in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660.
1649. Act Parlt., 19 May. Be it Declared and Enacted by this present Parliament, and by the authority of the same, That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging are, and shall be, and are hereby Constituted, Made, Established, and Confirmed to be a Commonwealth and Free State; and shall henceforward be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the Supreme Authority of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers for the good of the People, and that without any King or House of Lords.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XIII. (1843), 784/2. The parliament, as soon as they had settled their commonwealth … sent ambassadors to their sister republic, the States of the United Provinces.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 55, ¶ 2. The Commonwealth, when it was in its height of Power and Riches.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., Introd. § 25. In the time of the commonwealth this spectacle was discontinued.
1862. R. Vaughan, Eng. Nonconf., 443. In the days of the Long Parliament and of the Commonwealth.
5. transf. and fig. Applied in various ways to a body or a number of persons united by some common interest; e.g., commonwealth of learning, the whole body of learned men, the ‘republic of letters’; commonwealth of nations: see quot. 1796.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. Prol. A ij b. The hole common welth of all Christendome.
1608–11. Bp. Hall, Medit., II. § 82. The whole heavenly commonwealth of angels.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 90. Torricellius … to whon all the Common-wealth of Learning are exceedingly oblieg’d.
1712. W. Rogers, Voy., 311. In the Government of our sailing Commonwealth.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, Wks. VIII. 182. The writers on publick law have often called this aggregate of [European] nations a commonwealth. They had reason. It is virtually one great state having the same basis of general law; with some diversity of provincial customs and local establishments.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., IV. 348. Through all the mighty commonwealth of things Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 230. Any German or Italian principality … was a more important member of the commonwealth of nations.
1859. Masson, trans. Milton’s Oration (1628), in Life, I. 258. By what merit of mine I have been created dictator of the labouring and all but down-tumbling commonwealth of fools, I am verily ignorant.
b. Theatr. A company of actors who share the receipts instead of receiving salaries.
1886. L. Outram, in Dram. Rev., 27 March, 83/1. Fourth-class theatres, commonwealths, fit-up tours, and such venues of experience.
† 6. An appellation of the Norfolk insurgents of 1549 (or their adherents). Obs.
1549. Sir A. Aucher, in Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 204, note. Men called Commonwealths, and their adherents … have been sent up and come away without punishment. And that Commonwealth, called Latimer, hath gotten the pardon of others…. There was never none that ever spake as vilely as these called Commonwealths does.
7. attrib.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.), 68. Cloaking of bad actions with common-wealth pretences.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 157. I come to talke of Common-wealth Affayres.
1654. E. Johnson, Wonder-wrkg. Provid., 129. Compleating the Colonies in Church and Commonwealth-work.
1695. Enq. Anc. Const. Eng., 2. Much censured as savouring of commonwealth principles.
