burgher
/'bə:gə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A citizen of a town or borough, especially one with full municipal rights and privileges: Historically, this term referred to a freeman or inhabitant of a borough, a self-governing town.
- A member of the middle class, particularly a solid, prosperous citizen: This sense emphasizes social and economic status, often implying a person of established, respectable, and sometimes conservative standing within a community.
Examples of Usage
- Noun:
- The wealthy burghers of the medieval town funded the construction of the new guildhall.
- In the 17th century, Dutch burghers were known for their patronage of the arts.
Advanced Usage
- "Burgher" can carry a connotation of comfortable, bourgeois prosperity and sometimes complacency.
- The novel satirizes the narrow-minded concerns of the provincial burghers.
Variants and Related Words
- Bourgeois (noun/adjective): A term with a similar meaning relating to the middle class, often used in a broader social or critical context.
- He rejected the bourgeois values of his parents' generation.
- Burgess (noun): A historical term with a very similar meaning, often interchangeable with "burgher," for an inhabitant of a borough with full civic rights.
Synonyms
- Citizen: A more general term for an inhabitant of a city or town.
- Townsman: A male inhabitant of a town.
- Commoner: A person not of noble rank.
Related Phrases
- "Burgher rights": Refers to the specific legal privileges and duties of a citizen in a historical borough.
- Acquiring burgher rights allowed him to trade freely within the city walls.
Related Idioms
- "Fat burgher": An idiom (though less common) used to depict a stereotypically wealthy, complacent, and comfortably well-fed middle-class citizen.
- The politician's policies were designed to appeal to the fat burghers of the small towns.
Noun
- a member of the middle class
- a citizen of an English borough