Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A citizen of a town or borough.
- n. A comfortable or complacent member of the middle class.
- n. A member of the mercantile class of a medieval European city.
- n. A citizen of a medieval European city.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An inhabitant of a burgh or borough, who enjoys the privileges of the borough of which he is a freeman; hence, any citizen of a borough or town.
- n. One of a body of Presbyterians in Scotland, constituting one of the divisions of the early Secession Church. This church became divided in 1747 into the Associate Synod, or Burghers, and the General Associate Synod, or Antiburghers, on the lawfulness of accepting the oath then required to be taken by the burgesses in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Perth. See
Antiburgher . - n. In South Africa, a citizen of the former Transvaal Republic or of the Orange Free State.
Wiktionary
- n. A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to middle class.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A freeman of a burgh or borough, entitled to enjoy the privileges of the place; any inhabitant of a borough.
- n. (Eccl. Hist.) A member of that party, among the Scotch seceders, which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath (in which burgesses profess “the true religion professed within the realm”), the opposite party being called
antiburghers .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a member of the middle class
- n. a citizen of an English borough
Etymologies
- From Middle Dutch burgher (Modern Dutch: burger); from Middle High German burger; from Old High German burgari ("inhabitant of a fortress"); derivative of burg ("fortress, citadel"), from Proto-Germanic *burgz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰərgʰ- (“fortified elevation”). Compare also Old English burgwaras ("inhabitants of a burg, burghers, citizens"). More at borough. (Wiktionary)
- German Bürger or Dutch burger, both from Middle High German burgaere, from Old High German burgārī, from burg, city; see bhergh-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Jewish population, the so-called burgher estate, [1] consisting of petty artisans and those impoverished tradesmen who could not afford to enrol in the mercantile guilds, though there are cases on record where poor”
“In times of peace the citizen of the Boer republics was called a burgher, and when he took up arms and went to war he received no special title to distinguish him from the man who remained at home.”
“It was not within the walls of his own house alone that the burgher might be a man of importance.”
“His 'burgher's brief,' as a citizen of St. Bartholomew, is now in my possession.”
Jack in the Forecastle or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale
“Therefore every sailor belonging to those islands is provided with a document, called a 'burgher's brief,' which, like an American protection, gives a minute description of the person of the bearer, and is signed and sealed by the official authorities.”
Jack in the Forecastle or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale
“In point of fact the ambitions and hypocrisies, pretences and prejudices of the Cingalese "burgher" with the tell-tale finger-nails are merely those of Bristol or Amsterdam evolved under Colonial conditions.”
“Old men are now living who have not forgotten those days when all distinctions vanished, when the only name heard was "burgher," and when the skeptical and daring favorites of the people obtained seats in the national assembly.”
History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology
“Once you are from Pittsburgh, you've got that 'burgher' in you.”
“a "burgher" ( "townsman") -- a soldier, appointed to learn that profession that he may guard the walls -- the exact reverse of _our_ notion of a burgher.”
“Painted just before Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from Leiden, it depicts an eminent local burgher, clad in dark robes and rising up majestically against a twilight background.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘burgher’.
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250 Further Spelling Words
Another compilation of spelling words suitable for intermediate to advanced spellers.
venturi, aesir, affenpinscher, rottweiler, amanuensis, balletomane, hansard, sangfroid, yukata, capriccio, cuisse, heriot and 237 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
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Tickles my humerus
I find these to be inherently funny.
cow tipping, bumblebee, homoscedasticity, seattle, wagga wagga, booby, pants, guacamole, poodle, fanny pack, nincompoop, svenborgia and 161 more...
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Lolita
Words compiled while reading Lolita
lolita, solecism, cognomen, etiolate, tendresse, expiatory, filch, paroxysm, arabesques, sibilant, manque, uranist and 181 more...
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Queue 02
burgher, mien, churlish, scofflaw, debilitate, enervate, stet, juke, feint, wile, destitute, schism and 8 more...
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Words looked up.
A general list of words that I’ve learned during my self-study times.
burgher, qua, pace, lieu, ipso facto, indolence, bona fide, pis aller, plaint, gambit, proclivity, triage and 47 more...
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Economist
panglossian, stolid, burgher, insouciantly, emote, pyrrhic, reticence, anodyne
Tweets
Looking for tweets for burgher.
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