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autonomy
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek αὐτονομῐ́ᾱ (autonomĭ́ā, “freedom to use its own laws, independence”), from αὐτόνομος (autónomos, “living under one's own laws, independent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, “-y, -ia”, nominal suffix). By surface analysis, auto- (“self”) + -nomy (“a system of rules or laws about a particular field”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɔːˈtɒn.ə.mi/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɔˈtɑ.nə.mi/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ɑˈtɑ.nə.mi/
- Rhymes: -ɒnəmi
Noun
autonomy (countable and uncountable, plural autonomies)
- (uncountable) The right or condition of self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
- Antonyms: dependency, heteronomy, servitude, nonautonomy, inoperability
- Coordinate term: sovereignty
- 1951, Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, Verso, published 2005, page 200:
- But while assiduously dismissing any though of its own autonomy and proclaiming its victims its judges, it outdoes, in its veiled autocracy, all the excesses of autonomous art.
- (government, countable) A self-governing country or region.
- (philosophy, uncountable) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.
- (mechanics, uncountable) The capacity of a system to make a decision about its actions without the involvement of another system or operator.
- Antonyms: heteronomy, incapacity
- 1992, Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, Pantheon Books, page 41:
- ...[T]he fact that a scientific theory finds applications to a wide variety of different phenomena does not imply anything about the autonomy of this theory from deeper physical laws.
- (Christianity, uncountable) The status of a church whose highest-ranking bishop is appointed by the patriarch of the mother church, but which is self-governing in all other respects. Compare autocephaly.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
self-government
|
capacity for individual decision
|
in mechanics
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References
- “autonomy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “autonomy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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