Realm
- For other meanings see Realm (disambiguation)
A realm is the dominion of a monarch, king or queen, emperor or empress, or another personal sovereign ruler of some sort. The Old French reaume (modern French royaume) was the form of the word first adopted in English; the fixed modern spelling does not appear until the beginning of the 17th century. The word supposedly derives from medieval Latin regalimen, from regalis, of or belonging to a rex, (king).[1] Realm directly translates into reich in German, though the word reich is often used as a short form for 'kingdom' (Königreich) and especially 'empire' (Kaiserreich). The German -reich is only used for realms headed by a crowned monarch. Territories ruled by non-crowned rulers end in the suffix -tum (engl.: -dom), p. e.: Herzogtum (dukedom), Fürstentum (principality)
"Realm" is particularly used for those states whose name includes the word kingdom (for example, the United Kingdom), to avoid clumsy repetition of the word in a sentence (for example, "The Queen's realm, the United Kingdom...").
"Realm" is also frequently used to refer to territories that are "under" a monarch, yet are not a physical part of his or her "kingdom" (for example, the various Commonwealth Realms under the British Crown, in Realm of Sweden, or to Holstein, which until the Second War of Schleswig was an important part of the Danish King's realm stretching to the border of Hamburg, although not a part of the Danish Kingdom). This Similarly, the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau are considered parts of the Realm of New Zealand, although they are not part of New Zealand proper. Likewise, the Faroe Islands and Greenland remain parts of the Danish Realm.
See also
Realm is pronounced ree-al-m or ree-lm, not relm
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "REALM". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. RFC2617
Footnotes
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Realm"