Dictionary

polystate en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *polh₁ús Ancient Greek πολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)lbor. English poly- Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂-tu-s ~ *sth₂-téw-s Proto-Italic *status Latin statuslbor. Old French estatbor. Middle English stat English state English polystate From poly- + state, coined by author Zach Weinersmith.

Meanings

1. A set of separate political units that overlap and exist under a central government.
   • Weinersmith, who is best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, describes the polystate as a geopolitical entity in which multiple overlapping states exist — but each “state” consists of citizens who have agreed to the laws of a single non-geographic state; typical geographically-bound nations, or traditional “geostates”, would be replaced by “polystates”, which are collections of “anthrostates”. 2014 June 12, George Dvorsky, “12 Futuristic Forms of Government That Could One Day Rule the World”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2021:
   • Anthrostates have rules relevant to their members, while polystates have rules relevant to the interaction of anthrostates and their members. 2014 March 22, Rick Weber, “Polystate: Book 2”, in Notes on Liberty, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2021:

Forms