What is the morphology of the word democracy? At first glance, I surmise a -y suffix on the end of the word and the connecting vowel -o- in the middle. However, to ascertain the morphemes of the word, I must first investigate the etymology.
Looking up democracy in Wiktionary and Etymonline, I find that the word meaning “rule by the people” ultimately comes from Ancient Greek dēmokratíā via Medieval Latin dēmocratia and Middle French democratie. The word has not changed much in form from its origins.
Wiktionary tells me that, by surface analysis, democracy consists of demo– meaning “people” and –cracy meaning “rule.” Wiktionary erroneously identifies demo- as a prefix and -cracy as a suffix. But every word must contain at least one base. While a good source of semantic and etymological information, Wiktionary is not schooled in morphology or Structured Word Inquiry. I must thus delve more deeply into the Ancient Greek dēmokratíā to determine the Modern English morphemes.
The Ancient Greek dēmokratíā consists of dêmos meaning “common people” and -kratía meaning “power, rule.” The dêmos is the nominative form of the word. The -os is an Ancient Greek nominative noun ending. The corresponding plural ending is -oi as in the Ancient Greek dêmoi. Looking at the entry for dêmos on Wiktionary, I can see that the Ancient Greek word gave English the words deme and demos. The word deme means “district, township, subdivision.” The word demos (plural demoses or demoi) means “subdivision, municipality, ordinary citizens of an ancient Greek city-state.
Thus, the base is <Deme> or <Dem(e)>. To determine if the final <e>, which prevents the <m> from doubling, is replaceable or parenthetical, I need to determine if any bases directly follow the <m> because a base does not replace a replaceable <e>.
Looking back at the entry for demo- on Wiktionary (which, again, erroneously identifies the morpheme as a prefix but that I know is a base because of the English noun deme from the Ancient Greek noun dêmos), I immediately see the words demagogue and demarchy. The <agogue> and <arch> are both bases. The bound base <Agog(u)e> denotes “lead, set in motion, drive, urge, push forward, stimulate” and also forms the base of the words pedagogy and synagogue. The bound base <Arch> denotes “first, early, primitive, primary, principal, govern, leader, ruler” and also forms the base of the words anarchist and monarch.
<Dem(e) + Agog(u)e → demagogue>
<Ped(e) + Agog(u)e + y → pedagogy>
<syn + Agog(u)e → synagogue>
<Dem(e) + Arch + y → demarchy>
<an + Arch + ist → anarchist>
<Mon(e) + Arch → monarch>
The first morpheme in democracy is thus the free base <Dem(e)>. The <o> that follows the base is the connecting vowel -o-.
<Dem(e) + o + Cracy → democracy>
<Dem(e) → deme>
<Dem(e) + s → demes>
<Dem(e) + os → demos>
<Dem(e) + os + es → demoses>
<Dem(e) + oi → demoi>
The remaining <cracy> portion of democracy comes to English from French –cratie from Medieval Latin –cratia from Ancient Greek –kratíā, which comes from krátos + –íā. I totally thought that I was going to be wrong about the final <y> being a suffix, but the Ancient Greek –íā is a source of the Modern English noun suffix -y denoting a state, condition, or quality. Thus, the second base in democracy is the bound <Crace> denoting “might, strength, power, rule” with the replaceable <e> to prevent doubling of the <c>. Despite extensive searching, I could not find any other bases or suffixes other than -y that follow the <Crace>, so I know the base requires the replaceable <e>.
<Dem(e) + o + Crace + y → democracy>
Other relatives that contain the <Crace> base include autocracy, kleptocracy, and theocracy.
<Aut + o + Crace + y → autocracy>
<Klept + o + Crace + y → kleptocracy>
<The + o + Crace + y → theocracy>
Another word related to democracy the noun is democratic the adjective. Clearly both words have similar meanings and share some morphemes. However, the second base in each word is different. While democracy contains the <Crace> base, democratic contains the related <Crat(e)> base. The change from the <t> in <Crat(e)> to the <c> in <Crace> reflects phonological and orthographic changes in Latin from Ancient Greek. The <Crat(e)> comes from the Ancient Greek krátos, which contains the Ancient Greek nominal noun ending -os (though krátos is neuter and thus takes the plural -e rather than the masculine -oi as with dêmos~ dêmoi). Both <Crace> and <Crat(e)> show the Latinization of the Ancient Greek <k> to <c>.
As for the final <e> on <Crat(e)>, the parenthetical <e> is required to prevent the <t> from doubling even though the <e> does not surface in word-final <Crat(e)>.
<Dem(e) + o + Crat(e) → democrat>
<Dem(e) + o + Crat(e) + ic → democratic>
The word democracy thus consists of the free base <Dem(e)>, the connecting vowel -o-, the bound base <Crace>, and the noun suffix -y.
