public [LME] The root of public, Latin publicus, is shared by publish [ME] ‘to make public’ and republic [M16th] Latin res public ‘the business of the people’, and is related to *people. People have been able to go to a public house for a drink since the early 17th century, and to the abbreviated pub since around 1800. The first publicans were collectors of taxes (collectors of the public revenue), not sellers of drinks. This explains the disparaging references to them in various biblical passages. The use of the term to refer to a person who manages a pub dates from the early 18th century. In North America and elsewhere public schools are schools supported by public funds and open to all, and people often wonder why English public schools, which are private, fee-paying, and independent, are so called. In England a public school, a term first recorded in 1580, was originally a grammar school founded for the benefit of the public, as opposed to a private school run for the profit of its owner. Such schools were open to all and took resident students from beyond their local neighbourhood. The saying any publicity is good publicity appears in 1925 described as ‘the prevailing psychology of Hollywood’. An alternative form is there’s no such thing as bad publicity.