Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 November 10

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November 10

Commonwealth

Earlier I was reading this and was struck by the phrasing in paragraph 6, "...damage to Commonwealth property...". I realised that he was referring to the Commonwealth of Australia and not the Commonwealth of Nations but it seemed an odd way of saying it. So:

1. Is this a common term in Australia?
2. If so why? (To show the difference between federal and state property I assume)
3. Do other places, such as the Commonwealth of Dominica or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, use that type of wording?

Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 10:49, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Massachusetts certainly does. You can find many references to Massachusetts as "The Commonwealth" at their official website. --Jayron32 15:09, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

So does Virginia. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:45, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

1/2, in every day language, federal government is more common - particularly when referring to the political side of government. Commonwealth Government is a more formal usage, referring to the offical name "Commonwealth of Australia". Hack (talk) 16:39, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Also Kentucky. shoy (reactions) 15:07, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

In a former life, I worked for a time at the now-defunct Department of Tourism. As it was a department of the Commonwealth Government, its letterhead etc read "Commonwealth Department of Tourism", to distinguish it from any similarly-named state departments. But the rub was that it dealt predominantly with tourism into and out of Australia, not interstate tourism. So, when senior people went to conferences etc, met their foreign counterparts, and handed over their business cards, the recipients would often wonder whether the person was representing the entire Commonwealth of Nations, not just Australia. After a while, sanity prevailed and the word "Commonwealth" was dropped from the stationery. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:52, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks all. Interesting because I had never heard it used like that before. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 00:10, 11 November 2015 (UTC)