sovereign
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɒv.ɹɪn/
ipa: /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹɪn/
rhymes: -ɒvɹɪn
Forms: form: sovereigns
form: soveraign
form: soveraigne
form: sovran
form: sovring
form: sovrin
Etymology: From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. See also suzerain, foreign.
Senses: examples: text: The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det
 To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt,
 Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.
ref: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:
text: Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
 Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat
 That we must change for Heaven?, this mournful gloom
 For that celestial light? Be it so, since hee
 Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
 What shall be right : fardest from him is best
 Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
 Above his equals. […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 242-249:
text: No question is to be made but that the bed of the Missisippi^([sic]) belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.
ref: 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia:
glosses: A monarch; the ruler of a country.
glosses: One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
examples: text: A loose network of perhaps tens of thousands of far-right antigovernment extremists, sovereigns share certain conspiratorial beliefs and, sometimes, a desire to profit off a government whose legitimacy they deny.
ref: 2019 March 29, Ashley Powers, “How Sovereign Citizens Helped Swindle $1 Billion From the Government They Disavow”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
Ellipsis of sovereign citizen.
glosses: A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.
glosses: A former Australian gold coin, minted from 1855–1931, of one pound value.
glosses: A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33+¹⁄₃ standard bottles.
glosses: Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, eg., ursula, viceroy.
examples: text: No, someone who wears loads of sovereigns as well loads of gold and has uh a curly perm and peroxide blonde hair, orange, orange sunbed skin and a fringe like this blow-dried to death, that’s a ‘scally’.
ref: 2004, December 11, "Birkenhead, Merseyside" BBC Voices recording (0:06:52)
text: No visible tattoos, sovereigns, mismatched jewellery, scrunchies, large clips or hoop earrings.
ref: 2011 July 1, Caroline Davies, “Harrods 'ladies' code' drives out sales assistant”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.
Hyponyms: sense: monarch
word: king
sense: monarch
word: queen
Derived terms: quarter sovereign
sovereignty
Related terms: half sovereign