subject, n.
1. One who owes allegiance to a sovereign and is governed by that sovereign’s laws (the monarchy’s subjects).
“Speaking generally, we may say that the terms subject and citizen are synonymous. Subjects and citizens are alike those whose relation to the state is personal and not merely territorial, permanent and not merely temporary. This equivalent, however, is not absolute. For in the first place, the term subject is commonly limited to monarchical forms of government, while the term citizen is more specially applicable in the case of republics. A British subject becomes by naturalisation a citizen of the United States of America or of France. In the second place, the term citizen brings into prominence the rights and privileges of the status, rather than its correlative obligations, while the reverse is the case with the term subject. Finally it is to be noticed that the term subject is capable of a different and wider application, in which it includes all members of the body politic, whether they are citizens (i.e., subjects stricto sensu) or resident aliens. All such persons are subjects, all being subject to the power of the state and to its jurisdiction, and as owing to it, at least temporarily, fidelity and obedience.” John Salmond, Jurisprudence 133 (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).
liege subject. See natural-born subject.
natural-born subject. A person born within the dominion of a monarchy, esp. England.
— Also termed liege subject. Cf. NATIONAL.
2. The matter of concern over which something is created (the subject of the statute).
— Also termed (in sense 2) subject matter.
