gynæcocracy
(ˌgaɪ-, dʒaɪ-, dʒɪnɪˈkɒkrəsɪ, g-)
Also 7 ginæcocratie, 8–9 gynecocracy.
[ad. Gr. γυναικοκρατία (Aristotle, Plutarch), f. γυναικ(ο)-, γυνή woman + -κρατία -cracy. Cf. F. gynécocratie (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
Government by a woman or women; female rule or mastery; depreciatingly, petticoat government.
| 1612 Selden Drayton's Poly-olb. xvii. Notes 276 Gynæcocracie. 1614 ― Titles Hon. ii. i. 176 Goropius vndertakes a coniecture of the first cause which excluded Ginæcocratie (or female succession and gouernment) among them. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 100 That God has owned Gynæcocraty..is evident in Deborah. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. vii. 169 What if it would overthrow a Gynæcocracy too? 1788 H. Clarke School Candidates (1877) 9 That there should be permitted such an abuse of power in the world, as either a public or domestic Gynecocracy! 1816 Scott Antiq. xxvi. note, In the fishing villages on the Firths of Forth and Tay..the government is gynecocracy. 1886 Temple Bar LXXVIII. 509 That social gynæcocracy for which France is famous. |
Hence gynæcoˈcratic, -ˈcratical adjs., pertaining to gynæcocracy or female government; gyˈnecocrat, an upholder of or adherent to gynecocratic government.
| 1856 F. E. Paget Owlet Owlst. 201 Can you tell me the meaning of Gynecocratical? 1877 R. Martineau tr. Goldziher's Hebrew Mythol. iv. 76 A theory of the history of civilisation usually called the Gynæcocratic. 1878 Fraser's Mag. XVII. 649 The rare respect for the proprietary rights of women in which Strabo saw a token of gynæcocratic barbarism. 1893 F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) LVI. 68/3 The unalloyed natives of Kocch Behar are so far gone as gynecocrats that all their property is vested in the women. |