body politicn.

a1475 J. Fortescue Governance of Eng. (Laud) (1885) 112 (MED) The felowshippe that came in to this lande with Brute, willynge to be vnite and made a body pollitike callid a reawme, hauynge an hed to gouerne it.

1532–3 Act 24 Hen. VIII xii This Realm of England is an Empire..governed by one supreme Head and King..unto whom a Body politick, compact of all Sorts and Degrees of People..been bounden and owen to bear a natural and humble Obedience.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie Pref. 25 A lawe is the deed of the whole bodie politike.

a1610 J. Healey tr. Epictetus Manuall (1636) xxxi. 40 But what place shall I hold then..in the body politicke?

1668 J. Corbet Second Disc. Relig. Eng. v. 12 The Protestant Dissenters, are such as do much of the Business of the Nation, and have not their Interest apart, but in strict conjunction with the whole Body-Politick.

a1711 R. Bulstrode Mem. Reign Charles I & Charles II (1721) 5 In our Body Politick, we were bless'd with long Peace, with Riches and Plenty the Product of it.

1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. v. 106 The Sea Ports are the Arteries of the Body Politic, the capital City is its Heart.

1782 V. Knox Ess. (1819) I. xii. 69 All conduct extensively injurious to individuals, is injurious to the body politic.

1861 Times 23 May 9/1 The body politic known for 70 years as the United States of America is not a Confederacy, not a compact of Sovereign States, not a co-partnership; it is a Commonwealth.

1887 Publ. Amer. Econ. Assoc. 1 28 These [transportation businesses] are the nerves and arteries of the body politic, and should be directed from a common center.

1932 M. Anderson in K. Coe & W. H. Cordell Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918–1934 (1935) 759/2 The whole damn government's a gang of liver flukes, sucking the blood out of the body politic.

1975 K. Tynan Diary 2 Oct. (2001) 277 The workers are the blood and muscle of the body politic, while the great majority of the intelligentsia are merely frayed nerve-ends.

1993 R. Limbaugh See, I told you So Introd. p. xv Though I denounce liberalism's effect on our body politic, our culture, and our society, I deliberately eschew alarmism and fatalism.

2002 W. Self Dorian (2003) iii. 47 Taking the long view, perhaps the West End junkies with their Dikes and Rits were the obsessive psychic abscess that, once burst, spread this poison throughout the body politic.

1536 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 10 Feoffments, fines, recoveries, and other like assurances to uses, confidences, and trusts.—Seised..of..lands..to the use, confidence, or trust of any other person or persons, or of any body politick.

1607 J. Cowell Interpreter sig. Zzz2^v/1 Vniversitie..is by the Ciuill lawe any bodie politicke, or corporation.

1641 Termes de la Ley Bodies Politique are Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deanes, Parsons of Churches, and such like, which have succession in one person onely.

1642 J. March Argument Militia 27 The King is a body politick,..for that a body politique never dieth.

1662 W. Dugdale Hist. Imbanking & Drayning Fens liv. 387 There shall be a Corporation, or body politick of xxx. known and discreet persons, by the name of the Governours of the Fens.

1702 J. Savage Antient & Present State Germany 56 These Imperial Cities Rule in the manner of an Incorporate Body Politick.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 199 The Word Chapter is sometimes put to signify the Place, where Collegiate Persons or Bodies Politick Ecclesiastical do usually meet..in order to treat of and transact the Affairs of the Community.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. 467 These artificial persons are called bodies politic, bodies corporate, or corporations.

1833 Act 3 & 4 William IV c. 74 §1 The word ‘Person’ shall extend to a Body Politic, Corporate, or Collegiate, as well as an Individual.

1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 46/2 For the purpose of maintaining and perpetuating the uninterrupted enjoyment of certain powers, rights, property, or privileges, it has been found convenient to create a sort of artificial person, or body-politic, not liable to the ordinary casualties which affect the transmission of private rights, but capable, by its constitution, of independently continuing its own existence.

1952 Times 7 Feb. 9/4 The King is regarded in law as both a body politic and body natural.

1596 J. Norden Christian Familiar Comfort 55 Yea with families, and houses, wherinto Parishes, Tythings, Borowsheads, and such pettie liberties are diuided: euery of which is of it selfe a pettie bodie politique, of the vniuersall politique bodie of the kingdome.

1634 J. Canne Necessitie of Separation iv. 166 To knit themselues together in a spirituall outward societie or body politick.

1666 J. Glanvill Philos. Endeavour Def. Witches & Apparitions 37 The Devil is a name for a Body Politick, in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits, and perhaps in as much variety of place and state, as among our selves.

1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi i. vi. 24/2 With mutual consent they became a Body-Politick, and framed a Body of necessary Laws and Orders.

1756 T. Rutherforth Inst. Nat. Law II. ii. 12 Each individual, who associates himself with others, so as to form with them one civil society or body politic, does it with a view of obtaining their assistance in the maintenance and support of his rights.

1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Church viii. 77 Associations and bodies politic within the church.

1900 ‘J. Waring’ tr. H. de Balzac Harlot's Progress (new ed.) I. 52 These two, Lucien and Herrera, formed a body politic.

1953 Philos. Q. 3 111 A body politic consists of its social part, the area of free will, of joint activity, of contractual agreement, and a non-social part.

2002 R. Hunter World without Secrets v. 79 All Network Armies are about minority bodies politic that combine..to form an amplified power base.