democracy

Democracy comes from Middle French democratie, from Medieval Latin dēmocratia, from Ancient Greek dēmokrătĭ́ā. Its two Greek pieces are demo- ('people') and -cracy ('rule'), so the word simply spells out 'rule by the people.'

The facts here only trace its path through French and Latin back to Greek; no further shift in meaning is recorded.

The -cracy piece ('rule') shows up in other words for systems of power, but no specific cognate is given in the facts available.