southern African nation, 1980, named for an ancient city there, from Bantu zimba we bahwe "houses of stones," from zimba, plural of imba "house" + bahwe "stones." Previously known as Rhodesia (1964-80). Related: Zimbabwean.
"state in which supreme or executive power rests in the people via representatives chosen by citizens entitled to vote," c. 1600, from French république (15c.), from Latin respublica (ablative republica) "the common weal, a commonwealth, state, republic," literally res publica "public interest, the state," from res "affair, matter, thing" (see re) + publica, fem. of publicus "public" (see public (adj.)).
Applied to particular states so constituted by 1630s. The notion of "community in which there is a certain equality of members" is behind such expressions as republic of letters "collective body of those engaged in literary pursuits," attested from 1702.
"small Central American state with an economy dependent on banana production," 1901, American English.
1712, "belonging to a republic, of the nature of a republic, consonant to the principles of a republic," from republic + -an. With capital R-, "of, pertaining to, or favoring one of the various American parties that have been called Republican," by 1806 (the modern GOP dates from 1854). The French republican calendar was in use from Nov. 26, 1793 to Dec. 31, 1805. Earlier adjectives included republical (1650s), republicarian (1680s).
1926, from Russian, initialism (acronym) for Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika "Soviet Socialist Republic."
acronym for Army of the Republic of Vietnam, ground military force of South Vietnam, organized 1955.
"national language of the Republic of the Philippines," 1936, from Tagalog form of obsolete Spanish Pilipino (see Filipino).
small republic in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, probably from indigenous (Navarrese) andurrial "shrub-covered land." Related: Andorran.
holder of any of the scholarships founded at Oxford in 1902 by British financier and imperialist Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), for whom the former African colony of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) also was named. The surname is literally "dweller by a clearing," from Old English rodu "plot of land of one square rod." Related: Rhodesia; Rhodesian.
"of or from Argentina," 1830 (from 1829 as a noun, "citizen or inhabitant of the Argentine Republic"); Argentinian is from 1845 as a noun, 1858 as an adjective.
