- -cracy
- word-forming element forming nouns meaning "rule or government by," from French -cratie or directly from Medieval Latin -cratia, from Greek -kratia "power, might; rule, sway; power over; a power, authority," from kratos "strength," from PIE *kre-tes- "power, strength," suffixed form of root *kar-/*ker- "hard" (see hard (adj.)). The connective -o- has come to be viewed as part of it. Productive in English from c. 1800.
