burgher
Americannoun
noun
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a member of the trading or mercantile class of a medieval city
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a respectable citizen; bourgeois
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archaic a citizen or inhabitant of a corporate town, esp on the Continent
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history
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a citizen of the Cape Colony or of one of the Transvaal and Free State republics
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( as modifier )
burgher troops
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of burgher
1560–70; < Middle Dutch < Middle High German burger, equivalent to burg borough + -er -er 1
Explanation
Burgher is an old-fashioned term for a well-to-do resident of a town. Thanks to the wealthy burghers of your little city, the library got a fancy new cafe. This word can be used in a humorous way to mean "member of the bourgeoisie," but it originally referred to an official rank. During medieval times, privileged members of a European town (often those who were male and owned property) were given the title of burgher. City governments were composed of burghers, or “freemen of a burgh or borough.”
Vocabulary lists containing burgher
"Genesis of the Tenement," Vocabulary from the essay
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Medieval Europe - Middle School
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Medieval Europe - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Burgher said there were still “strong cultural and personal connections” between Norway and Orkney, where a parade every May 17 marks Norwegian Constitution Day.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 3, 2023
“In a place where we have 5,000-year-old houses on the landscape, that’s pretty recent history for us,” said Leslie Burgher, an architect who serves as Norway’s honorary consul in Orkney.
From Washington Times • Jul. 3, 2023
Complex and colorful drawings by Toyin Ojih Odutola, Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Elijah Burgher make for an unusually rich show in “For Opacity,” curated by Claire Gilman at the Drawing Center.
From New York Times • Jan. 3, 2019
The mismatch between our selves and our self-images takes charged shape in three masks by Richard Hawkins and Elijah Burgher.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 11, 2017
The report of Lord Kitchener's speech from which these paragraphs are taken was printed in Dutch and circulated by the Burgher Peace Committee.
From Lord Milner's Work in South Africa From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 by Worsfold, W. Basil (William Basil)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
