Burgess

//ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname transferred from the common noun.
  2. 2
    A number of places in the United States:; A township in Bond County, Illinois.
  3. 3
    A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Hayes Township, Charlevoix County, Michigan.
  4. 4
    A number of places in the United States:; A village in Barton County, Missouri.
  5. 5
    A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Horry County, South Carolina.
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  1. 6
    A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Virginia.
Noun
  1. 1
    An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.

    "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. 2
    a citizen of an English borough wordnet
  3. 3
    A town magistrate. historical
  4. 4
    A representative of a borough in the Parliament. UK, historical
  5. 5
    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. US, historical

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman burgeis (“town-dweller”), from Old French burgeis, a variant of borgeis, a toponym of mixed Germanic and Latin origins.

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