Abstract: Among all the political currents (forms) which have marked the history of Western Europe, only two have sustained an ongoing depth of meaning. The two derive from words of Greek origin: monarchy and democracy. This study aims to review the semantic history of the two words (“monarchy” from the Greek mónos and archía and “democracy” from the Greek démos and crátos) as they are manifest in the French dictionary beginning with the Dictionnaire de Richelet and ending with the Dictionary of the Abbe Féraud. The history of these words and of their meanings serves thus as a way by which to verify how the idea of different political forms and landscapes has evolved to present day.
