Belgravian

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Belgravia +‎ -ian

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (file)

Adjective[edit]

Belgravian (comparative more Belgravian, superlative most Belgravian)

  1. Of or pertaining to Belgravia, London.
  2. (by extension) Of or pertaining to the fashionable or aristocratic life; fashionable, aristocratic.
    • 1909, The Athenæum: A Journal of Literature, Science, The Fine Arts, Music, and The Drama, page 434:
      Many of the social figures in England, male and female, especially a very Belgravian mother, Lady Clarice, are deftly drawn ; but the coloured desperado, who fails in his attack on his brother, is a little crude.
    • 1929, Punch, or the London Charivari, volume 176, page 258:
      [] and of course she has the most Belgravian connection, my dear she's ushered half the peerage onto the planet, so that what I don't know about the insides of the aristocracy and their habits in the home, []

Noun[edit]

Belgravian (plural Belgravians)

  1. A resident of Belgravia, London.
  2. (by extension) A member of the fashionable or aristocratic society assumed to reside in Belgravia.
    • 1862, “London, and its Forms of Social Life”, in The Boston Review, volume 2, page 102:
      The haughty Belgravians, the aristocracy of rank, are greatly shocked at the bad manners of the aristocracy of wealth, the Barings and Rothschilds of the city, and earnestly entreat all "respectable" strangers at Prince Albert's fair to bear it ever in mind that London City is not London Town!