Legislation

How to spell legislation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce legislation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does legislation mean?

1. nounLaws considered collectively, or the process of making them.

Legislation in a sentence

• The new legislation takes effect at the start of the financial year.

• Parliament passed the legislation after months of debate.

Where does legislation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin phrase legis latio, which literally meant 'the proposing or bringing of a law'. The first part comes from lex, meaning 'law' (whose genitive form is legis, 'of law'), and the second from latio, a noun built on latus, the past participle of ferre, 'to carry' or 'to bring'. A Roman who put forward a statute was said to 'carry' the law, so the combined idea was the act of bringing a law into being. English adopted the term in the early 1600s, at first to describe the making of laws and soon afterwards the body of laws themselves. The same lex root still lives in 'legal', 'legitimate' and 'legislature', and the buried lat- element (carry) also surfaces in words like 'translate' and 'relate', which helps explain the slightly unexpected -isl- spelling in the middle.

How the word is built

• legis- (of law, from Latin lex, law)
• lat- (carried, proposed, from ferre, to carry)
• -ion (noun of action)