policy

Etymology 1

From Middle French policie, from Late Latin politia (“citizenship; government”), classical Latin polītīa (in Cicero), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship; polis, (city) state; government”), from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”). Compare police and polity.

noun

1. A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body.
   The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
   It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
2. Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
3. (now rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
   Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy, is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive. 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.25
4. (Scotland, now chiefly in the plural) The grounds of a large country house.
   1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland section on Aberbrothick Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young.
   Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled. 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 36
5. (obsolete) The art of governance; political science.
6. (obsolete) A state; a polity.
7. (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.
8. (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.
9. (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.

verb

1. (transitive) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

Etymology 2

From Middle French police, from Italian polizza, from Medieval Latin apodissa (“receipt for money”), from Ancient Greek ἀπόδειξις (apódeixis, “proof, declaration”).

noun

1. (law)
   1. A contract of insurance.
   2. A document containing or certifying this contract.
      Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
2. (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
3. A number pool lottery