public purse

English

WOTD – 25 November 2024

Etymology

From public (adjective) +‎ purse (“(figurative) quantity of money given for a particular purpose”, noun).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pʌblɪk ˈpɜːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pʌblɪk ˈpɜɹs/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
• Hyphenation: publ‧ic purse

Noun

public purse (plural public purses)

1. (economics, government, idiomatic) A quantity of money collected by a government through taxation and other methods, and used for public purposes; public funds, public money.

   The public purse should be spent in the public interest.

   • 2021 February 10, “Network News: Additional Funds Enable Preparatory Work for Ashington Reopening”, in Rail, number 924, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8:

     This means that while initial funding will come from the public purse, landowners along the route will eventually pay back a share of the uplift in land values created by the new line.

Related terms

• disbursement
• hold the purse strings
• power of the purse
• public debt
• public interest

Translations

quantity of money collected by a government and used for public purposes

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 公款 (zh) (gōngkuǎn), 國庫 / 国库 (zh) (guókù)

• Finnish: yhteiset varat pl
• French: deniers publics (fr) m pl
• German: Staatskasse (de) f, öffentliche Hand (de) f
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: kasa państwowa f, skarb państwa m
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: erario público m
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• exchequer
• treasury

Further reading

• government spending on Wikipedia.Wikipedia