burgher
/ˈbɜː(ɹ)ɡə(ɹ)/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.13 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.
noun
A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.
noun
A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.
noun
A prosperous member of the community; a middle-class citizen (may connote complacency).
noun
A member of a mixed-race ethnic group of Sri Lanka, consisting of descendants of European colonists and local people.
Example Sentences
- "When General Grant started on his tour around the world, the City of Brotherly Love was selected as the point of departure, and thence he set sail for Europe with the benisons of the sturdy burghers of the Quaker City."
Etymology
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.