Etymology

bureaucracy

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Today it means: Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers. Full definition →

French bureaucratie ← Ancient Greek κρᾰ́τος (krắtos) ← Proto-Indo-European *kret-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*péh₂wr̥
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pāwər
  3. Ancient Greekπῦρ (pûr)
  4. Ancient Greekπῠρρός (pŭrrhós)
  5. Latinburrus
  6. Latinburra
  7. Old French*bure
  8. Old Frenchburel
  9. Frenchbureau
  10. Proto-Indo-European*kret-
  11. Ancient Greekκρᾰ́τος (krắtos)
  12. Frenchbureaucratie
  13. English todaybureaucracy

From bureau + -cracy, from French bureaucratie, coined by Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay from bureau (“office”) + -cratie (“rule of”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.