Editing Suffrage (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''suffrage'' comes from [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|suffragium}}, which initially meant "a voting-tablet", "a ballot", "a vote", or "the right to vote". {{Lang|la|Suffragium}} in the second century and later came to mean "political patronage, influence, interest, or support", and sometimes "popular acclaim" or "applause". By the fourth century the word was used for "an intercession", asking a patron for their influence with the Almighty. {{Lang|la|Suffragium}} was used in the fifth and sixth centuries with connection to buying influence or profiteering from appointing to office, and eventually the word referred to the bribe itself.<ref>{{citation |doi=10.2307/588044 |title=Suffragium: From Vote to Patronage |journal=[[The British Journal of Sociology]] |volume=5 |date=March 1954 |publisher=[[The London School of Economics and Political Science]] |author=G. E. M. de Ste. Croix |issue=1 |pages=33–48 |jstor=588044 |author-link=G. E. M. de Ste. Croix}}</ref> William Smith rejects the connection of {{Lang|la|suffragium}} to ''sub'' "under" + ''fragor'' "crash, din, shouts (as of approval)", related to ''frangere'' "to break"; Eduard Wunder writes that the word may be related to ''suffrago'', signifying an ankle bone or knuckle bone.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Suffragium.html |title=LacusCurtius • Voting in Ancient Rome – Suffragium (Smith's Dictionary, 1875) |publisher=Penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=21 June 2013}}</ref> In the 17th century the English ''suffrage'' regained the earlier meaning of the Latin ''{{Lang|la|suffragium}}'', "a vote" or "the right to vote".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suffrage |title=Suffrage |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=31 August 2012 |access-date=21 June 2013}}</ref>