Commonwealth

The English noun commonwealth dates from the fifteenth century. The original phrase "common-wealth" or "the common weal" comes from the old meaning of "wealth," which is "well-being." The term literally meant "common well-being." Thus commonwealth originally meant a state or nation-state governed for the common good as opposed to an authoritarian state governed for the benefit of a given class of owners. Commonwealth derives from the Latin term res publica, a broad concept which is also sometimes translated as "public affairs" or "the state" in certain contexts. Res publica is also the term from which the English word republic arises.

Today the term is more general and means a political community.

The type of community indicated by the term commonwealth varies. For instance, in different contexts it might indicate:

a political unit founded in law by agreement of the people for the common good;
a federated union of constituent states;
a community of sovereign states;
a republic;
a democratic constitutional monarchy;
When capitalized, "Commonwealth" normally refers to the 53 member Commonwealth of Nations


(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)