Constituency

How to spell constituency

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce constituency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does constituency mean?

1. nounA body of voters who elect a representative, or the district they live in.

Constituency in a sentence

• The new member visited every town in the constituency before the vote.

• Local employers form a powerful constituency that politicians cannot ignore.

Where does constituency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows out of the Latin verb constituere, which meant 'to set up, establish or appoint', formed from con- (together) and statuere (to set or place, itself from status, a standing). English first gained the related noun 'constituent' in the 1600s to describe a component part of something and then a voter who appoints a representative. From that, 'constituency' was coined in the early 1800s to mean the whole body of voters who together appoint a member, and soon afterwards the geographic district they live in. The unusual spelling trap is the unstressed middle, where -stitu- quietly slides into -ency, so writers often drop or muddle a letter; remembering the parent words 'constitute' and 'constituent' keeps the spelling steady. The same statuere root also gives us 'statute', 'institute' and 'status', all sharing the idea of something firmly set in place.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• stitu (from statuere: to set up, establish)
• -ent (forming an agent)
• -cy (noun of state or body)