borgeis

Old French

Alternative forms

• borjois, burgeis, burgeys, burgois, burgeois, bourgois

Etymology

From burc (“fortified place, town”), from Frankish *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortress”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrgʰ- (“fortified elevation”). More at bourgeois.

Pronunciation

• (archaic) IPA^(key): /buɾˈdʒei̯s/
• (classical) IPA^(key): /buɾˈdʒoi̯s/
• (late) IPA^(key): /buɾˈʒo̯es/

Noun

borgeis oblique singular, m (oblique plural borgeis, nominative singular borgeis, nominative plural borgeis)

1. town-dweller; someone who lives in an urban area

Descendants

• Middle French: bourgois, bourgeois
  • French: bourgeois (see there for further descendants)
• Walloon: bordjeûs
• → Middle English: burgeis, burgeys, burges
  • English: burgess
  • → Irish: buirgéis
  • Scots: burges
  • → Welsh: bwrdais

Further reading

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (borgeis)
• “borgeis”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.