burgess
/ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.53 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
noun
A town magistrate.
noun
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.
American usage
name
A surname transferred from the common noun.
name
A number of places in the United States:
name
A number of places in the United States:
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "If any burgess be appealed of a plea whereon wager of battle may issue by a villein or outdweller , let him defend himself by oath, that is to say by the 36 men, unless he is challenged in respect of a crime that the law requires him to defend by battle, in no case ought a burgess to fight against a villein if he have challenged him unless before the dispute he shall have quitted the burgage."
Etymology
From Middle English burgeis, from Anglo-Norman burgeis (“town-dweller”), 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 borough, bourgeois, burgish.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/