Plebiscit

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Plebiscite \Pleb"i*scite\, n. [F. pl['e]biscite, fr. L.
     plebiscitum.]
     A vote by universal male suffrage; especially, in France, a
     popular vote, as first sanctioned by the National
     Constitution of 1791. [Written also {plebiscit}.]
     [1913 Webster]


  
           Plebiscite we have lately taken, in popular use, from
           the French.                              --Fitzed.
                                                    Hall.
     [1913 Webster]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PLEBISCIT, civil law. This is an anglicised word from the Latin plebiscitum, 
  which is composed or derived from plebs and scire, and signifies, to 
  establish or ordain. 
       2. A plebiscit was a law which the people, separated from the senators 
  and the patricians, made on the requisition of one of their magistrates, 
  that is, a tribune. Inst. 1, 2, 4.