Definition

1. 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

1. a member of the middle class
2. a citizen of an English borough