promulgate
verbUK /ˈpɹɒml̩.ɡeɪt/ · US /ˈpɹɑ.məl.ɡeɪt/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English promulgaten, from Latin prōmulgātus, perfect passive participle of prōmulgō (“to make known, publish”), either from provulgō (“to make known, publish”), from pro (“forth”) + vulgō (“to publish”), or from mulgeō (“to bring forth”, literally “to milk”); see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Doublet of promulge.
1
To make known or make public.
- ’Tis yet to know, / Which when I know, that boaſting is an Honour, / I ſhall promulgate. I fetch by life and being, / From Men of Royall Seige.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- Prieſts have invented, and the world admir’d / What knaviſh prieſts promulgate as inſpir’d ; / ’Till reaſon, now no longer overaw’d, / Reſumes her pow’rs, and ſpurns the clumſy fraud ; / And, common-ſenſe diffuſing real day, / The meteor of the goſpel dies away !1784 November 6, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: Or, A Review of Schools”, in Poems, page 303:
2
To put into effect as a regulation.
- […] the Statute of Uses was delayed until 1536 and the Statute of Wills until 1540, but both statutes were promulgated in 1532, and formed part of a policy which we may compare, not favourably, with the of Edward I[…]1881 June 7, William Stubbs, “The Reign of Henry VIII”, in Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History and Kindred Subjects, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1887, page 293:
3
Nonstandard To advocate on behalf of (something or someone, especially of an idea); to spread knowledge of and make more widely known.
4
Obsolete, Participle, Past past participle of promulgate
- Derived terms
- promogulate, promulgater, promulgation, promulgator, promulgatory, repromulgate, unpromulgated
- Related terms
- promulge