different between policy vs polity

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 politie, from Latin politia (circa. 1530s C.E.), from Ancient Greek ???????? (politeía, “polity, policy, the state”). Doublet of policy and police.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?.l?.t?/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /?p?.l?.ti/

Noun

polity (plural polities)

1. (politics) An organizational structure of the government of a state, church, etc.
2. (political science) A politically organized unit; a state.

   Different nations have different forms of polities, from provinces and states to territories and municipalities.

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• polity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• polity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.