Controlled or governed by rules, laws, or established principles; made regular or orderly.
From Latin 'regula' meaning rule or straight stick, through 'regulatus'. The word shares roots with 'regular' and originally meant to make straight or orderly.
The Latin 'regula' was literally a ruler or straight-edge used by craftsmen - so regulation originally meant making things as straight and orderly as a carpenter's line. Modern financial and environmental regulations still aim for this same ideal of straight, predictable order.
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