Dictionary

plantocracy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /plɑːnˈtɒkɹəsi/ (UK)
• /plænˈtɑkɹəsi/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂-? Proto-Indo-European *pel-? Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *pléh₂-n̥t-eh₂ Proto-Italic *plāntā? Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k-der. Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂nk /*gteh₂ Proto-Italic *plānktā Latin plantabor. Proto-West Germanic *plantu Old English plante Middle English plante English plant Ancient Greek -ο- (-o-)der. Latin -o-bor. English -o- Proto-Indo-European *kret-der. Ancient Greek κρᾰ́τος (krắtos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -κρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (-krătĭ́ā)bor. English -cracy English plantocracy From plant + -o- + -cracy.

Meanings

1. Government by plantation owners.
   • Too many, however, who might take an honourable stand, fear the petty spleen of the plantocracy; preferring the most disgusting adulation, to the blessing of him ready to perish. 1843, “A Voice from Trinidad”, in Colonial Magazine and Commercial-maritime Journal, page 465:
2. The group of plantation owners who have power in such a government.
   • Although remnants of the plantocracy retained positions of economic and political importance into the 1960s and represented the hardest core of Jamaican conservatism, its significance was historical rather than contemporary. 1977, Terry Lacey, Violence and Politics in Jamaica, 1960-70: Internal Security in a Developing Country, The plantocracy and slavery:

Forms

Relateds

plantocrat