Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

night watchman state

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.01 in modern English

Syllables: night watch-man s-tate
IPA

32

Scrabble Score

18

Letters

3

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts.

Example Sentences

"The doctrines of conservative liberalism were propounded by the late nineteenth century's leading intellectual proponents of the night watchman state."
"For these neoLiberal^([sic]) Democrats of the Orange Book school remain determined to junk social liberalism for economic liberalism. Their guiding light is the Gladstonian ideal of a low tax, laissez-faire, “night-watchman state”."

Etymology

Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft.

Inflected Forms

night watchman states (plural) night-watchman state (alternative)

Frequently Paired Words

nanny state welfare state police state

Synonyms

minarchy minimal state

Questions

What does night watchman state mean?: Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts.
Where does night watchman state come from?: Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft.

How to pronounce night watchman state

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