burgess
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See also: Burgess
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English burgeis,[1] from Anglo-Norman burgeis, of Proto-Germanic origin; either from Late Latin burgensis (from Latin burgus), or from Frankish *burg, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-.[2] See also bourgeois, burgish.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
[edit]burgess (plural burgesses)
- An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
- 1907, Antiquities of Sunderland and Its Vicinity - Volumes 5-7, page 73:
- If any burgess be appealed of a plea whereon wager of battle may issue by a villein or outdweller , let him defend himself by oath, that is to say by the 36 men, unless he is challenged in respect of a crime that the law requires him to defend by battle, in no case ought a burgess to fight against a villein if he have challenged him unless before the dispute he shall have quitted the burgage.
- (historical) A town magistrate.
- (historical, UK) A representative of a borough in the Parliament.
- (historical, US) A member of the House of Burgesses, a legislative body in colonial America, established by the Virginia Company to provide civil rule in the colonies.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]inhabitant of a borough with full rights
References
[edit]- ^ Burgess (title) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “burgess”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰerǵʰ-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English 2-syllable words
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