promulgate

What it means

1. transitiveTo make known or make public.

   ’Tis yet to know, / Which when I know, that boaſting is an Honour, / I ſhall promulgate. I fetch by life and being, / From Men of Royall Seige.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   1 more example

   Prieſts have invented, and the world admir’d / What knaviſh prieſts promulgate as inſpir’d ; / ’Till reaſon, now no longer overaw’d, / Reſumes her pow’rs, and ſpurns the clumſy fraud ; / And, common-ſenſe diffuſing real day, / The meteor of the goſpel dies away !

   1784 November 6, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: Or, A Review of Schools”, in Poems, page 303

   Synonyms: declare, proclaim, publish · Antonyms: withhold

2. transitiveTo put into effect as a regulation.

   […] the Statute of Uses was delayed until 1536 and the Statute of Wills until 1540, but both statutes were promulgated in 1532, and formed part of a policy which we may compare, not favourably, with the of Edward I[…]

   1881 June 7, William Stubbs, “The Reign of Henry VIII”, in Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History and Kindred Subjects, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1887, page 293

   Synonyms: carry out, execute, implement, put into effect · Antonyms: abrogate

3. nonstandardtransitiveTo advocate on behalf of (something or someone, especially of an idea); to spread knowledge of and make more widely known.

   Synonyms: propagate, promote, disseminate

In a sentence

’Tis yet to know, / Which when I know, that boaſting is an Honour, / I ſhall promulgate. I fetch by life and being, / From Men of Royall Seige.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

Where it comes from

1. Latinprōmulgātus
2. Middle Englishpromulgaten
3. Englishpromulgate

Inherited from Middle English promulgaten, from Latin prōmulgātus, perfect passive participle of prōmulgō (“to make known, publish”), either from provulgō (“to make known, publish”), from pro (“forth”) + vulgō (“to publish”), or from mulgeō (“to bring forth”, literally “to milk”); see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Doublet of promulge.

First known use: 1526–1838