constitution
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: Catholicism
Christianity
government
law
Etymology: PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Middle English constitucioun, constitucion (“edict, law, ordinance, regulation, rule, statute; body of laws or rules, or customs; body of fundamental principles; principle or rule (of science); creation”) from Old French constitucion (modern French constitution), a learned borrowing from Latin cōnstitūtiō, cōnstitūtiōnem (“character, constitution, disposition, nature; definition; point in dispute; order, regulation; arrangement, system”), from cōnstituō (“to establish, set up; to confirm; to decide, resolve”). Equivalent to constitute + -ion.
Base: constitute
Affixes: -ion
Inflected forms:
form: constitutions
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The act, or process of setting something up, or establishing something; the composition or structure of such a thing; its makeup.
pos: noun
examples: the physical constitution of the sun
gloss: The formal or informal system of primary principles and laws that regulates a government or other institutions.
pos: noun
examples: 1693, Edmund Bohun, A Geographical Dictionary
They have in their present Constitution a Grand Council of the Nobility, a Senato, a College of Twenty six who give Audience to Ambassadors and report their Demands to the Senate, a Council of Ten; and a Triumvirate (monthly chosen by, and out of, the Ten) of three Inquisitors of State; whose Authority is so absolute, as to extend to the taking away of the Life of the Doge no less than the meanest Artisan, without acquainting the Senate, provided they all three agree in the Sentence.
Our constitution had begun to exist in times when statesmen were not much accustomed to frame exact definitions.
After all, that would be akin to a self-coup. Apart from the traditional vision of a coup requiring a military takeover of the government, self-coups occur when governments depart from typical norms of democracy by altering election laws, calling into question election results or seeking to suspend their constitutions in order to stay in power.
gloss: A legal document describing such a formal system.
pos: noun
gloss: A document issued by a religious authority serving to promulgate some particular church laws or doctrines.
pos: noun
gloss: A person's physical makeup or temperament, especially in respect of robustness.
pos: noun
examples: He has a strong constitution, so he should make a quick recovery from the illness.
Our constitutions have never been enfeebled by the vices or luxuries of the old world.
He defended himself with [...] less passion than was expected from his constitution.
gloss: The general health of a person.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: But when once his constitution began to decline, he broke very fast, and being attacked bya complication of diseases, he at length gave way to fate, May 10, 1733.
Don Manuel de Casafonda the governor, whose countenance bespoke a constitution far gone in a decliner had thrown himself on a sopha in the last state of despair and given way to an effusion of tears:
The physician, to gratify the apothecary, thinks himself obliged to order ten times more physic than the patient really wants, by which means he ruins his constitution, and too often his life; otherwise how is it possible an apothecarty's bill in a fever should amount to forty, or fifty, or more pounds?
In early life his health was infirm, and his education much interrupted in consequence; but by diligent study, as his constitution improved, he made up his lost ground, and became one of the most accomplished classical and general scholars of his time.
Related words: constitute
constituent
constituency
constitutive
Derived words: apostolic constitution
constitutional
constitutioned
constitutioner
Constitutioner
constitutionist
constitutionless
Cuntstitution
living constitution
metaconstitution
miniconstitution
reconstitution
Translations: