different between policy vs police

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?l?si/, /?p?l?si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?l?si/

Etymology 1

From Middle French policie, from Late Latin politia (“citizenship; government”), classical Latin pol?t?a (in Cicero), from Ancient Greek ???????? (politeía, “citizenship; polis, (city) state; government”), from ??????? (polít?s, “citizen”). Compare police and polity.

Noun

policy (countable and uncountable, plural policies)

1. A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body. [from 15th c.]

2. Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness. [from 15th c.]
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Modern Library Edition (1995), page 140:

     These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you […]

   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre

     The very policy of an hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.

3. (now rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft. [from 15th c.]
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.25:

     Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy, is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.

4. (Scotland, now chiefly in the plural) The grounds of a large country house. [from 18th c.]
   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, page 36:

     Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.

5. (obsolete) The art of governance; political science. [14th–18th c.]
   • a. 1616, William Shakespeare, Henry V, I.1:

     List his discourse of Warre; and you shall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Musique. / Turne him to any Cause of Pollicy, / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnloose, / Familiar as his Garter […]

6. (obsolete) A state; a polity. [14th–16th c.]
7. (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration. [15th–19th c.]
8. (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem. [15th–19th c.]
   • a. 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus:

     'Tis pollicie, and stratageme must doe / That you affect, and so must you resolue, / That what you cannot as you would atcheiue, / You must perforce accomplish as you may.

9. (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.

   • What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Burmese: ??????? (paula.ci)

Translations

Verb

policy (third-person singular simple present policies, present participle policying, simple past and past participle policied)

1. (transitive) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

Etymology 2

From Middle French police, from Italian polizza, from Medieval Latin apodissa (“receipt for money”), from Ancient Greek ????????? (apódeixis, “proof, declaration”)

Noun

policy (plural policies)

1. (law)
   1. A contract of insurance.
   2. A document containing or certifying this contract.

2. (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
3. A number pool lottery

Synonyms

• (number pool) policy racket

Derived terms

• policyholder

Translations

Further reading

• policy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• policy at OneLook Dictionary Search
• policy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle French police, from Latin pol?t?a (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek ???????? (politeía). Doublet of policy and polity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, General American, Scotland) IPA^(key): /p??li?s/, [p????li?s]
• (England, colloquial) IPA^(key): /?pli?s/
• (Southern American English, AAVE) IPA^(key): /?po?.li?s/
• Rhymes: -i?s
• Hyphenation: po?lice

Noun

police pl (normally plural, singular police)

1. A civil force granted the legal authority for law enforcement and maintaining public order. [from 18th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:police
2. (regional, chiefly US, Caribbean, Jamaican, Scotland) A police officer. [from 19th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:police officer
3. (figuratively) People who seek to enforce norms or standards.
4. (military, slang) The duty of cleaning up.
   • 1907, Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Tex. on the Night of August 13 and 14, 1906 (volume 2)

     Q. […] What did you do that day? — A. I was cleaning up around quarters.
     Q. You had been on guard and went on police duty? You were policing, cleaning up around the barracks? — A. Yes, sir.

5. (obsolete) Policy. [15th-19th c.]
6. (obsolete) Communal living; civilization. [16th-19th c.]
7. (now rare, historical) The regulation of a given community or society; administration, law and order etc. [from 17th c.]
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Greta Nation, Penguin 2003, page 218:

     The notion of ‘police’ – that is, rational administration – was seen as a historical force which could bring civilized improvement to societies.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

police (third-person singular simple present polices, present participle policing, simple past and past participle policed)

1. (transitive) To enforce the law and keep order among (a group).
2. (transitive, intransitive, military, slang) To clean up an area.
   • 1900, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, Proceedings of the eighth annual meeting

     This comes to him through the company housekeeping, for in the field each organization takes care of itself, cooks its own food, makes its own beds, does its own policing (cleaning up); […]

   • 1907, Hearings Before the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Tex. on the Night of August 13 and 14, 1906 (volume 2)

     Q. […] What did you do that day? — A. I was cleaning up around quarters.
     Q. You had been on guard and went on police duty? You were policing, cleaning up around the barracks? — A. Yes, sir.

   • 1986, Oliver Stone, Platoon (film script)

     ELIAS: Police up your extra ammo and frags, don't leave nothing for the dinks.

   • 2006, Robert B. Parker, Hundred-Dollar Baby, Putnam, ?ISBN, page 275,

     "Fire off several rounds in a residential building and stop to police the brass?"

3. (transitive, figuratively) To enforce norms or standards upon.

   to police a person's identity

Derived terms

• self-police
• tone policing

Anagrams

• ecilop

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pol?t?s?/

Noun

police f

1. shelf (a structure)

Declension

Derived terms

• poli?ka

Further reading

• police in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• police in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Etymology

Via Middle French police and Italian polizza from Ancient Greek ????????? (apódeixis, “proof”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p?o?li?s?]

Noun

police c (singular definite policen, plural indefinite policer)

1. policy (an insurance contract)

Inflection

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?.lis/
• Rhymes: -is

Etymology 1

From Late Latin pol?t?a (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek ???????? (politeía).

Noun

police f (plural polices)

1. police

   Coordinate terms: gendarmerie, sûreté

2. (Quebec, colloquial) cop (police officer)

   Synonyms: flic, gendarme, keuf, policier

Derived terms

Related terms

• policier
• policière

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Italian polizza.

Noun

police f (plural polices)

1. (insurance) policy

2. (typography) fount, font

Derived terms

• police d'écriture

Descendants

• ? German: Police
• ? Turkish: polis

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

police

1. first-person singular present indicative of policer
2. third-person singular present indicative of policer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of policer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of policer
5. second-person singular imperative of policer

Anagrams

• picole, picolé

Further reading

• “police” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin politia.

Noun

police f (plural polices)

1. governance; management
   • 1577, Jean d'Ogerolles, Discours sur la contagion de peste qui a esté ceste presente annee en la ville de Lyon, front cover

     contenant les causes d'icelle, l'ordre, moyen et police tenue pour en purger, nettoyer et delivrer la ville (subheading)

     containing the causes, the order, means and management employed to purge, clean and deliver the city

Related terms

• policie

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin politia.

Noun

police f (uncountable)

1. (Jersey) police

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

police

1. inflection of polica:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?lit?s?/

Noun

police

1. nominative plural of polica