plebiscit

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Plebiscite \Pleb"i*scite\, n. [F. pl['e]biscite, fr. L.
   plebiscitum.]
   A vote by universal male suffrage; especially, in France, a
   popular vote, as first sanctioned by the National
   Constitution of 1791. [Written also {plebiscit}.]
   [1913 Webster]

         Plebiscite we have lately taken, in popular use, from
         the French.                              --Fitzed.
                                                  Hall.
   [1913 Webster]

from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

PLEBISCIT, civil law. This is an anglicised word from the Latin plebiscitum, 
which is composed or derived from plebs and scire, and signifies, to 
establish or ordain. 
     2. A plebiscit was a law which the people, separated from the senators 
and the patricians, made on the requisition of one of their magistrates, 
that is, a tribune. Inst. 1, 2, 4.

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