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Burgher

//ˈbɜː(ɹ)ɡə(ɹ)// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.; A member of the medieval mercantile class.
  2. 2
    A member of a mixed-race ethnic group of Sri Lanka, consisting of descendants of European colonists and local people.
  3. 3
    a member of the middle class wordnet
  4. 4
    A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.; A citizen of a medieval city.
  5. 5
    a citizen of an English borough wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A prosperous member of the community; a middle-class citizen (may connote complacency).

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English burger, burgher, burghere, equivalent to burgh + -er (“inhabitant of”). Likely merged with and reinforced by Middle Dutch burgher (Modern Dutch: burger); from Middle High German burger (Modern German: Bürger); from Old High German burgāri (“inhabitant of a fortress”); derivative of burg (“fortress, citadel”), from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“fortified elevation”). Compare also Old English burgwaras (“inhabitants of a burg, burghers, citizens”) and Serbo-Croatian purger. More at borough.

Etymology 2

From burgher (“middle-class person”) and the synonymous Dutch burger. The European colonists who mixed with natives were of that social stratum.

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