Etymology

state of siege

Today it means: An exceptional legal condition in which constitutional limits on the powers of the government are suspended, usually owing to military necessity and implying martial law. Full definition →

French état de siège
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The story

  1. French · calque ofétat de siège
  2. English todaystate of siege

Calque of French état de siège, first codified in a 1791 law of the Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution as an aggravated condition of war justifying the subordination of the civilian government to military authorities. Extended to apply to internal rebellion by a French law of 1797; subsequently broadened again in 1849 to denote any political state of emergency.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.