Etymology

republic

re·pub·lic
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Today it means: A state where sovereignty rests with the people or their representatives, rather than with a monarch or emperor; a country with no monarchy. Full definition →

Middle French republique ← Latin rēpūblicā ← Old Latin poplicus
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(H)reh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*(H)reh₁ís
  3. Proto-Italic*reis
  4. Latinrēs
  5. Proto-Italic*poplos
  6. Old Latinpoplus
  7. Old Latinpoplicus
  8. Latinpūblicus
  9. Latinpūblica
  10. Latinrēspūblica
  11. Latinrēpūblicā
  12. Middle Frenchrepublique
  13. English todayrepublic

From Middle French republique (“republic”), from Latin rēspūblicā, from rēs (“thing”) + pūblica (“public”); hence literally “the public thing”. Like with real, to many, the first morpheme has assimilated to re-, making it derivable as re- + public. Displaced native Old English cynewīse (“state, nation, republic”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.