Public
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈpʌblɪk/
- Hyphenation: pub + lic
Origin
From Anglo-Norman publik, public, Middle French public, publique et al., and their source, Latin pūblicus ("pertaining to the people"), alteration (probably after pubes ("adult men")) of populicus, from populus ("people"). Compare people.
Full definition of public
Adjective
public
- Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment. from 14th c.
- 2011, Sandra Laville, The Guardian, 18 Apr 2011:Earlier this month 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.
- 2013-06-28, Joris Luyendijk, Our banks are out of control, Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic …. 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.
- Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc. from 15th c.
- 2010, Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, 16 Sep 2010:A mere 3% of the more than 1,000 people interviewed said they actually knew what the conference was about. It seems safe to say public awareness of the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya - and its goal of safeguarding wildlife - is close to non-existent.
- 2013-05-17, George Monbiot, Money just makes the rich suffer, In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. … The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
- Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community. from 15th c.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 22, From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
- 2004, The Guardian, Leader, 18 Jun 2004:But culture's total budget is a tiny proportion of all public spending; it is one of the government's most visible success stories.
- Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. from 15th c.
- 2011, David Smith, The Guardian, 10 May 2011:Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
- 2013-06-14, Jonathan Freedland, Obama's once hip brand is now tainted, 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.
- (of a company) Traded publicly via a stock market.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Noun
public
(plural publics)- The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
- 1905, w, w:The Case of Miss Elliott Chapter 2, “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 Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. …â€
- 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques, The GuardianBush and Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
- (archaic) A public house; an inn.
Usage notes
Although generally considered uncountable, this noun does also have countable usage, as in the quotation above.