ABSTRACT
The historical roots of the word ‘policy’ now support two related branches of meaning. In the first branch, ‘policy’ flows from its Greek and Latin origin into associations with civil administration and government, and in the second branch policy flows into associations (via Latin poltus) with the polished, refined, cultivated and polite (OED). Both branches of the word’s meanings are concerned with social order, but they focus on order at very different levels: at the level of large institutions in the first branch and at the level of individual persons in the second.
