Suffrage

How to spell suffrage

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suffrage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suffrage mean?

1. nounThe right to vote in political elections.

Suffrage in a sentence

• The campaign demanded universal suffrage for all adult citizens.

• Women won the suffrage in stages across the early twentieth century.

Where does suffrage come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin suffragium, which meant a vote, a ballot, or the right to cast one, and by extension support or approval given to a candidate. The deeper origins are debated, but it is often traced to sub- (meaning under or in support of) combined with a root linked to fragor, the crashing din of a crowd shouting its approval, which fits the image of Romans voicing support at an assembly. The term passed into English through Old French in the late 1300s, and curiously its earliest English sense was religious: it meant intercessory prayers offered on someone's behalf. Over time the political meaning of a vote reasserted itself, and by the 1700s suffrage settled into the sense of the right to vote in public elections. The word became famous in the 1800s and early 1900s through the campaigns for women's suffrage, and that history is the main reason most adults recognise it today. The spelling trap lies in the doubled f and the unstressed -age ending, which sounds like a soft schwa rather than the full vowel its spelling suggests.

How the word is built

• suf- (variant of sub-: under, in support of)
• frag (from Latin suffragium: a vote, related to fragor: a noise of approval)
• -age (noun suffix)