Referendum - plebiscite

Although the uses of the nouns referendum and plebiscite overlap, the central meanings of the two words, as revealed by their etymologies, are distinct.

• A referendum - the plural may be either referenda or referendums, though the former is to be preferred (see further Latin gerundives in English]]) – is the referral or submission of an issue of political or public significance to a direct vote by the electorate. (The word comes from the Latin verb referre, ‘to carry back, to refer back’: referendum is either the gerundive of the verb, meaning ‘(something) to be referred back’, or the gerund, meaning ‘referral back’.) Referenda are uncommon in the UK, though two have been held in recent years - the referendum on Scottish independence held on 18th September 2014, and the referendum on continued British membership of the European Union held on 23rd June 2016.
  • The word referendum is also used to refer to:
    • the vote on an issue which has been referred to the electorate: it is here that the uses of referendum and plebiscite may overlap;
    • the submission of a (non-political) issue to the members of a group (e.g., a club or other voluntary association) for their decision;
    • a type of diplomatic communication in which, e.g., an ambassador asks his government for instructions or advice on some matter.
• Plebiscite is the English form of the Latin plebiscitum, which means ‘decree of the people’: the word is a compound of plebis, ‘of the people’ (the genitive of plebs, ‘the people’, ‘the populace’) and scitum, ‘decree’ (the past participle passive of the verb sciscere, ‘to decree’, ‘to approve’). A plebiscite is a direct vote by the electorate (of a country, region, or province) on some issue of public or political significance. The word is also sometimes used of any (strong) expression of public opinion on an issue.

In ancient Rome a plebiscitum was a resolution passed by the plebs (i.e., all non-aristocratic citizens) in the popular assembly (comitia plebis). After 287 BCE , i.e., during the final two-and-a-half centuries of the Roman Republic, a plebiscitum had the force of law.