主権

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: The spelling is 主権, read しゅけん, and it combines 主, meaning principal or governing subject, with 権, meaning right or authority.
• Basic usage: 主権 means sovereignty, either a state's supreme governing authority or the people's authority to determine public affairs.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• A concept concerning people and states and governing authority to be regained
  • Both examples use the form 主権. A class discusses popular and national sovereignty conceptually, while a small country in a story seeks to recover authority it lost.
• Political discussion in class and a small country's goal of recovery
  • 授業で国民と国家の主権について議論した。 — In class, we discussed popular and national sovereignty.
  • 物語の小国は失われた主権を取り戻そうとする。 — The small country in the story seeks to regain its lost sovereignty.