Saturday, August 29, 2009

Word Study: Sovereign

I chose the word sovereign from our reading because it was used many times and though I have heard the word many times in my life and do have the general gist of it, I have never actually looked it up and it was peaking my curiosity because I am not overly familiar with it. I wanted to know what they really meant in the article, so I looked up the dictionary.com definition for it, and it states:

sovereign 
–noun
1.
a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.
2.
a person who has sovereign power or authority.
3.
a group or body of persons or a state having sovereign authority.
4.
a gold coin of the United Kingdom, equal to one pound sterling: went out of circulation after 1914.

This did not give me a much clearer understanding of the word than what I already knew, so I looked it up again on google and it basically said that sovereign means the highest law of the land, one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere.

1 comment:

  1. Try looking up "sovereign" as an adjective (which is how it is used in the reading):

    - having supreme rank, power, or authority.
    - supreme; preeminent; indisputable: a sovereign right.
    - greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
    - being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
    - efficacious; potent: a sovereign remedy.

    Does this help?

    ReplyDelete