The Collaborative International Dictionary
Timocracy \Ti*moc"ra*cy\, n. [Gr. ?; ? honor, worth (fr. ? to honor) + ? to govern: cf. F. timocratie.] (Gr. Antiq.)
A state in which the love of honor is the ruling motive.
A state in which honors are distributed according to a rating of property.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1580s, from Middle French tymocracie, from Medieval Latin timocratia (13c.), from Greek timokratia, from time "honor, worth" (related to tiein "to place a value on, to honor," from PIE *kwi-ma-, suffixed form of root *kweie- (1) "to value, honor") + -kratia "rule" (see -cracy). In Plato's philosophy, a form of government in which ambition for honor and glory motivates the rulers (as in Sparta). In Aristotle, a form of government in which political power is in direct proportion to property ownership. Related: Timocratic; timocratical.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (''Platonism'') A form of government in which ambition for honor, power and military glory motivates the rulers. 2 (''Aristotelianism'') A form of government in which civic honor or political power increases with the amount of property one owns.
Wikipedia
A timocracy (timē, "price, worth" and -κρατία -kratia, "rule") is a state where only property owners may participate in government. The more extreme forms of timocracy, where power derives entirely from wealth with no regard for social or civic responsibility, may shift in their form and become a plutocracy where the wealthy and powerful use their power to entrench their wealth.
Usage examples of "timocracy".
When the French explorers entered it, it was a valley of aboriginal, anarchic individualism, with little movable spots of barbaric communistic timocracy, as Plato would doubtless have classified those migratory, predatory kingdoms of the hundreds of red kings, contemporary with King Donnacona, whom Cartier found on the St.
When the French explorers entered it, it was a valley of aboriginal, anarchic individualism, with little movable spots of barbaric communistic timocracy, as Plato would doubtless have classified those migratory, predatory kingdoms of the hundreds of red kings, contemporary with King Donnacona, whom Cartier found on the St.