Monday, September 2, 2013

gynarchy

gynarchy \JIN-er-kee, GAHY-ner-, JAHY-ner-\, noun:

government by women.

They—for it is a triplicate Gynarchy—still rule over a very large portion of territory and enjoy a subsidy from the government... 
-- George Alexander Lethbridge Banbury, Sierra Leone: or, The White Man's Grave, 1888
"But I have heard of—of gynarchy, I believe they call it." "You mean petticoat government?" "Yes."
-- edited by D. L. Cease, "Her Bright Smile," The Railroad Trainman's Journal, 1894

Gynarchy entered English in the late 1500s from the Greek gyne + -arkhe literally meaning "woman rule."

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