federal
Definitions
General English
- adjective relating to the central government of the united States
- adjective relating to a system where a group of states exist under a central government
Accounting
- adjective referring to a system of government where a group of states are linked together in a federation
Politics
- adjective referring especially to the central government of the United States
- abbreviationfed.
Publishing
- suffix meaning ‘using a particular type of paper’
Origin & History of “federal”
The modern political use of federal and its various derivatives is a comparatively recent development, ushered in by the formation of the USA in the late 18th century. Its original meaning was ‘of a league or treaty’ (it was formed from Latin foedus ‘league, treaty’, which came from the same ultimate Indo-European base – *bhidh-, *bhoidh- – as faith), and its application to a ‘joining together of states into a single unit’ seems to have arisen from such phrases as federal union, which would originally have meant ‘union by treaty’.
