magistracy
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˈmædʒɪstrəsi/
- Formal
:
magistratura
- The "Instruccions" concludes that "a summary and arbitrary way of justice discreetly mingled with those gravities and forms of magistracy ... will be of most use both for expedition and for example" (58).
Examples
-
They reiterated that the magistrates' "abused power and authority threaten our persons and estates," and they asked Governor Hunter to oust the five for "diverting from the fundamental laws and great ends of the magistracy and government."
Academic text (1990) -
To be sure, as Venema says, and as our interlocutor Matthew Tuininga has assertively maintained, Calvin tends to identify these two governments to a considerable extent with the institutional forms of church and magistracy respectively.
Blog text (8) -
This magistracy was among those that found a new home in the recently completed larger section of the palace.
Academic text (2000) -
How could anyone refuse to hear the church if the church was a magistracy?
Academic text (1990) -
How could they better gratify this than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
Blog text (11) -
Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them.
Academic text (1997) -
There were no traces of a countryside magistracy, no mansions, no castles.
Fiction book (1991) -
The Raleigh Sentinel proclaimed, "Much depends for the security and peace of society upon the intelligence, the virtue, and promptness of the magistracy."
Academic text (2017) -
Winthrop did not return the salute, since it was one from an inferior to a superior; but Samuel Sewall piously returned his father's gesture of deference to the magistracy.
Academic text (1994) -
The magistrate announced that the magistracy would hold a hearing next week.
Synonyms
A group of judges and local officials who have legal power
How Important
- Formal
1
9.7
- Archaic
- Formal
45
3.2
- Formal
1
8.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
magistracy = magistrate (transparent) = magistrate + acy
The meaning 'office or authority of a magistrate' is directly formed by adding the productive suffix '-acy' to 'magistrate'.
Etymology
Magistracy comes from magistrate, which in turn comes from the Latin magister, meaning 'master' or 'teacher' and is like the English word 'master'. So the magistracy is the 'office' or authority of that master or leader, which is why it means the position or power of a magistrate.