publiekelijke

Publiekelijke is a historical or regional Dutch adjective related to the public sphere. In contemporary standard Dutch, the common forms are publiek (as the attributive adjective) and publiekelijk (as an adverb). Publiekelijke appears mainly in older texts, legal prose, and certain regional varieties where spelling and inflection varied before standardization.

Etymology and form: the word derives from publiek, meaning public, with the suffix -elijk to form an adjective meaning “public” or “pertaining to the public.” The exact inflectional forms in older Dutch can differ from those used today, and publike/ publiekelijke variants may be found in historical sources.

Usage and status: today, publiekelijke is largely obsolete in everyday language. When representing the sense of “public” in modern Dutch, writers typically use publiek or, for adverbial meaning, publiekelijk. In specialized contexts such as law or policy, more precise compounds like publiekrechtelijk (public-law) or publiek-overschrijdend are used. If encountered in historical documents, publiekelijke reflects the historical spelling and grammatical conventions of that period rather than current usage.

Relation to related terms: to convey similar meanings in modern Dutch, you will most often choose publiek as the base adjective, publiekelijk as the adverb, or appropriate compound forms for legal or institutional contexts. Publiek is also the noun form for “the public.”

See also: Dutch language; public sphere; public law; juridical terminology.