Etymology

theocracy

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Today it means: Government under the control of a state religion. Full definition →

Ancient Greek θεοκρατία
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromθεοκρατία“rule of (a) God”
  2. English todaytheocracy

From theo- + -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the ancient Israelite polity under the Mosaic covenant. Attested in English from the 1620s, first by John Donne in A Sermon upon the fifth of November 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason: "The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God..."

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.