burgess

See also: Burgess

English

WOTD – 7 January 2013

Etymology

From Middle English burgeis, 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-. See also bourgeois, burgish.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

burgess (plural burgesses)

1. 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.

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.

Derived terms

• burgess-ship

Related terms

• bourgeois
• burgessy
• burgher
• right of burgess

 

Translations

inhabitant of a borough with full rights

• Catalan: burgès (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 市民 (zh) (shìmín)

• Dutch: burger (nl) m, (historical) poorter (nl) m
• Finnish: porvari (fi)
• German: (historical) Bürger (de) m, (historical)Bürgerin (de) f
• Irish: buirgéiseach m
• Italian: cittadino (it) m
• Manx: cochorpagh m
• Welsh: porthmon m, bwrdais m