capeˈlocracy
[f. Gr. κάπηλος shop-keeper + -κρατία rule.]
The shopkeeping ‘interest’ or class.
| 1841 Lytton Nt. & Morn. (1851) 236 A milliner's house (shop, to outward appearance, it was not), evincing..its degree above the Capelocracy, to use a certain classical neologism, by a brass plate. 1853 ― My Novel (Hoppe), The triumph of the capelocracy. |