Tribune

How to spell tribune

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tribune

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tribune mean?

1. nounAn official in ancient Rome elected to protect the interests of ordinary citizens, or more loosely any champion of the people.
2. nounA raised platform, dais, or gallery used by a speaker or by spectators.

Tribune in a sentence

• The tribune used his veto to block the unpopular law.

• The speaker climbed onto the tribune to address the assembled crowd.

• As a tribune of the plebeians, he was sworn to protect their rights.

• Officials watched the parade from a covered tribune above the square.

Where does tribune come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin tribunus, the title of an official who originally headed one of the three early tribes (tribus) of Rome, so the noun is built directly on tribus, meaning 'tribe'. In the Roman Republic the most famous holders were the tribunes of the plebs, magistrates elected to defend ordinary citizens against the patrician class, and the title also attached to senior army officers known as military tribunes. English borrowed the word through Old French during the medieval period, keeping the sense of a protector or champion of the people. From the related Latin tribunal, the raised platform from which a tribune gave judgement, came a second sense: a raised dais, gallery, or platform, which is why the word later appealed to many newspapers as a grand name suggesting a defender of public interest. The link back to tribus is worth remembering because the unstressed second syllable is spelled 'bu', echoing the original tribunus.

How the word is built

• tribun- (from Latin tribunus, officer of a tribe, from tribus 'tribe')
• -e