Etymology From public + school: originally, “public” in the sense of "communal" and contrasted with personal tutors; later, "state-run" and contrasted with private schools.
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India, Ireland, UK Certain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the personal lands of its students or (from the 19th century) the feepaying secondary schools which developed from or were modelled upon them; a British boarding school.
All such School-masters as have charge of Children and do instruct them either in Publick Schools, or Private Houses.1580 June 18, Letters of the Privy Council in John Strype's History of Edmund Grindal (1710), ii.xi.254
No person shall keepe any schoole... except it be in some publike [public] or free Grammer Schoole, or in some such noblemans... or gentlemans... house as are not recusants.1604, Acts of Parliament 1 under James I, c.4, §8
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This worthy Man having observed the imperfect Institution of our public Schools, and the many Vices which Boys were there liable to learn, had resolved to educate his Nephew... in his own House.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III, page 184:
Our Public Schools... (by which phrase we never mean real public schools like the Board schools at all, but merely schools for the upper and middle classes) are in their existing stage primarily great gymnasiums.1893 February 4, Westminster Gazette, section 2:
Who is there who has not jeered at the House of Lords, the military caste, the Royal Family, the public schools, the huntin′ and shootin′ people, the old ladies in Cheltenham boarding houses, the horrors of ‘county’ society and the social hierarchy generally?1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, section 146:
It turned out she was posh, or posh-ish, having been to a public school somewhere in Hampshire.2005, Nick Laird, Utterly Monkey, section 223:
The Court voted for the erecting a Publick Schooll or Colledge in Cambridge.1636, Harvard College Records, published 1925, I.171:
The Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order all public Schooles.1683, Pennsylvania Frame of Government, §10:
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By Act of Parliament no school is to be kept within two miles of a publick school.1702, Henry Paton, Minnigaff Parish Records: the Session Book of Minnigaff, 1694-1750, published 1939:
A subscription... by a great part of the settlers and others to build a Public School at the Green Hills.1804 August 12, Sydney Gazette, section 1:
Hardly anywhere in France... can the private boys' schools, whether they be lay or congreganist, hold their own in the competition with the public schools.1861, Matthew Arnold, The Popular Education of France, with Notices of that of Holland and Switzerland, x.105:
Every school under the management of the school board of a parish shall be deemed a parish school, and every school under the management of the school board of a burgh shall be deemed a burgh school, and all such schools are hereby declared to be public schools within the meaning of this Act.1872, Acts of Parliament 35 & 36 under Victoria (Scotland), c.62, §25
Thither [to Douai] he went, where after a yeres great diligence and many excercises done booth in house and publike scholes, he proceded bachilier of diuinitie [bachelor of divinity].1582, W. Allen, Briefe Hist. Glorious Martyrdom, sig. d3
ante 1593, Christopher Marlowe, Tragicall Hist. Faustus (1604), sig. A3v Ile haue them fill the publike schooles with skill. Wherewith the students shal be brauely clad.
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That which is now called an University, is a Joyning together, and an Incorporation under one Government of many Publique Schools, in one and the same Town or City.1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, iv.xlvi.370:
public-school
noun
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Attributive form of public school.
public-school student
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Alternative Alternative form of public school.
The state must provide for its own safety and perpetuation, therefore, by providing for the education of its youth. Upon this idea our system of public-schools is based.1880, Daniel Curry, “The American Nation—Its Origin, Character, and Hopes”, in Platform Papers: Addresses, Discussions, and Essays on Social, Moral, and Religious Subjects, Cincinnati, Ohio: Hitchcock and Walden; New York, N.Y.: Phillips & Hunt, page 134:
This institution has been a great blessing to this State since it opened its doors to our needy and neglected people. There is as great a demand for it now as ever, for our people are yet poor, and its teachers are first-class, and here we receive instruction in the higher branches, which are not taught in the public-schools of the State.1880, D. S. Brandon, “Rust Normal Institute”, in Twelfth Annual Report of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1879, Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Methodist Book Concern Print, page 48:
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In no way can a nation do more to advance the dignity and success of the public-schools of the people than by making excellence, in the good character they develop, and the studies they teach, the tests for the honor and profit of holdings its offices and enjoying its salaries.1885 July, “Two Years of Civil Service Reform”, in [C.] Allen Thorndike Rice, editor, The North American Review, volume CXLI, number CCCXLIV, New York, N.Y., […], page 22: