sovereign

Alternative forms

• sovran (archaic)
• soveraigne (archaic)

Etymology

From Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. See also suzerain, foreign.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒv.ɹɪn/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

sovereign (comparative more sovereign, superlative most sovereign)

1. Exercising power of rule.

   sovereign nation

2. Exceptional in quality.
3. (now rare) Extremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     The soueraigne weede betwixt two marbles plaine / She pownded small, and did in peeces bruze, / And then atweene her lilly handes twaine, / Into his wound the iuyce thereof did scruze […]

   • 1876, John Davies, “[Tobacco.]”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Edited, with Memorial-Introduction and Notes, by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. In Two Volumes (Early English Poets), volume II, London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, OCLC 752538909, page 226:

     Homer of Moly and Nepenthe singes: / Moly, the gods most soveraigne hearbe divine. / Nepenth Hellen's drink, which gladnes brings,— / Hart's greife repells, and doth ye witts refine.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     a sovereign remedy

   • (Can we date this quote?) South

     Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of the lives and actions of men.

4. Having supreme, ultimate power.
5. Princely; royal.
   • c1610, Shakespeare, A Winters Tale, V.i:

     You pity not the state, nor the remembrance of his most sovereign name.

6. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Hooker

     We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good.

Noun

sovereign (plural sovereigns)

1. A monarch; the ruler of a country.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (first quarto)‎, London: Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, and are to be sold at the signe of the white Greyhound in Paules Churh-yard^[sic], OCLC 236076664:

     The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.

   • Jefferson

     No question is to be made but that the bed of the Mississippi belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.

2. One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
3. A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.
4. A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33⅓ standard bottles.
5. Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, as the ursula and the viceroy.
6. (Britain, slang) A large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.
   • 2004, December 11, "Birkenhead, Merseyside" BBC Voices recording (0:06:52)

     No, someone who wears loads of sovereigns as well loads of gold and has uh a curly perm and peroxide blonde hair, orange, orange sunbed skin and a fringe like this blow-dried to death, that’s a ‘scally’.

   • 2011 July 1, Caroline Davies, “Harrods 'ladies' code' drives out sales assistant”, in The Guardian‎:

     No visible tattoos, sovereigns, mismatched jewellery, scrunchies, large clips or hoop earrings.

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