burgess

See also: Burgess

English

WOTD – 7 January 2013

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English burgeis, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Anglo-Norman burgeis, of (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  origin; either from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin burgensis < *burgus or (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Frankish, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. See also bourgeois, burgish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɜːdʒɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

burgess (plural burgesses)

1. An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
   • Template:RQ:WBsnt IvryGt

     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.

2. (historical) A town magistrate.
3. (historical, UK) A representative of a borough in the Parliament.
4. (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.

Related terms

• burgessy
• burgher
• right of burgess

 

Translations

inhabitant of a borough with full rights

• Dutch: burger (nl) m, (historical) poorter (nl) m
• Finnish: porvari (fi)
• German: (historical) Bürger (de) m, (historical)Bürgerin (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: buirgéiseach m
• Italian: cittadino (it) m
• Manx: cochorpagh m