Suffrage
Etymology
From Latin “suffragium,” “a vote, the right to vote, support.” Its deeper origin is disputed: some trace it to “suffragari,” “to vote for,” while others have linked it — less certainly — to “fragor,” the crash or din of a crowd shouting approval. The uncertainty is worth flagging; the shouting-crowd story is memorable but far from established.
noun · /SUF-rij/
The right to vote in political elections.
What it names
Reach for it to name the vote specifically as an entitlement — who possesses it, who is excluded, and how it expands over time.
Example
Universal suffrage arrived only after decades of campaigning by those the law had shut out.
Related idea
Suffrage is the right to vote; the franchise is the near-synonym, though franchise also carries a wider sense of citizenship rights and, in commerce, of a granted license. Both descend from ideas of freedom — one from Latin, one from the Frankish “free.”