Public

Public (ˈpə-blik) is an important, but sometimes controversial, term widely used in political, social and legal theory, research and conversation, with many different nuances and subtleties of meaning, most of which are in some way related to notions of openness, generality and connecting independent parts with a larger whole. The term is used regularly by political scientists and philosophers, politicians, journalists, policy analysts, economists, lawyers and members of the general public.

It is ordinarily used as an adjective to characterize things which are shared by, open or available to everyone, well or generally known, universally available or without limit, done or made on behalf of the community as a whole, open to general or unlimited viewing or disclosure, frequented by large numbers of people or for general use, a place generally open or visible to all pertaining to official matters or maintained at taxpayer expense. (A list of more than 50 instances of such terms is included on the Related Articles page of this entry.)

Public can also be used as a noun to refer to an undifferentiated group of people, often sharing some interest in common. For example, the public might be everyone (the general public), members of a particular community, state or other political jurisdiction (e.g., citizens of Canada are the Canadian public), those who share a particular interest or activity (those who watch television are called the viewing public), fans or followers or an audience, particularly of a widely-known figure (Cher came out to greet her public).

Public can also be used as a verb. To go public, for example, can mean to offer for open or general sale something (e.g. a stock offering) that was previously held or sold privately, or to publish, print, broadcast or distribute news or information, or disclose previously private, confidential, secret or concealed information. Publicize also has many different uses which come down to the idea of making, transforming or converting something from private to public.

Origins

The modern English term is derived from the Middle English (14th century) publique, which in turn comes from Anglo-French, and ultimately from the Latin publicus; akin to Latin populus people. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=public)

Using published instances, the Online Etymological Dictionary traces the connotation "of or pertaining to the people," from 1436 and the connotation "open to all in the community" from 1542 and reference to "the community" from 1611. The same source also lists a number of later connotations.

Eighteenth Century Meaning

Although the term has been in widespread use for a long time, there has been at least one major shift in its meaning in the specific context of government that appears to be related to the emergence of modern democracy (“government of the people, by the people and for the people.”). In several seventeenth and eighteenth century European monarchies under the influence of absolutism and the idea that the political authority of a sovereign was derived directly from God, many statements were made that sound paradoxical to contemporary ears: Statements like “This is a public matter. The people have no right to express a view on the issue, or even to know about it.” made perfect sense at the time.