This week’s theme
Words originating in the hand

This week’s words
glad hand
fingerpost
chirocracy
bareknuckle
manumission

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ky-ROK-ruh-see)

MEANING:

noun: Government that rules by physical force.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek chiro- (hand) + -cracy (rule), alluding to a rule by a strong hand or a heavy-handed rule. Earliest documented use: 1677.

USAGE:

“Although he did not explicitly say so, it seems likely that our author regarded contemporary society as going through the stages of ‘dangerous democracy’ and ‘anarchy or chirocracy’; after all, in 1577, the royal government of the Netherlands had collapsed, the States had taken matters into their own hands.”
Tabitta Van Nouhuys; The Ages of Two-Faced Janus; Brill; 1998.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: