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Definition of patricians - 3 dictionary results

pa⋅tri⋅cian

  [puh-trish-uhn]
Use patricians in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person of noble or high rank; aristocrat.
2. a person of very good background, education, and refinement.
3. a member of the original senatorial aristocracy in ancient Rome.
4. (under the later Roman and Byzantine empires) a title or dignity conferred by the emperor.
5. a member of a hereditary ruling class in certain medieval German, Swiss, and Italian free cities.
–adjective
6. of high social rank or noble family; aristocratic.
7. befitting or characteristic of persons of very good background, education, and refinement: patrician tastes.
8. of or belonging to the patrician families of ancient Rome.
Origin:
1400–50; < L patrici(us) patrician (pat(e)r FATHER + -icius adj. suffix) + -AN; r. late ME patricion < OF patricien

Related forms:
pa⋅tri⋅cian⋅hood, pa⋅tri⋅cian⋅ship, noun
pa⋅tri⋅cian⋅ism, noun
pa⋅tri⋅cian⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
7. dignified, genteel, stately.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To patricians
pa·tri·cian   (pə-trĭsh'ən)   
n.  

  1. A person of refined upbringing, manners, and tastes.

  2. A member of an aristocracy; an aristocrat.

  3. A member of one of the noble families of the ancient Roman Republic, which before the third century B.C. had exclusive rights to the Senate and the magistracies.

  4. Used as a title for members of a class of honorary nobility appointed by the Byzantine emperors.

  5. A member of the hereditary ruling class in the medieval free cities of Italy and Germany.


[Middle English patricion, from Old French patricien, from Latin patricius, from patrēs (cōnscrīptī), enrolled fathers, senators, pl. of pater, patr-, father; see pəter- in Indo-European roots.]
pa·tri'cian adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

patrician  (n.)
1432, "member of the ancient Roman noble order," from M.Fr. patricien, from L. patricius "of the rank of the nobles, of the senators," from patres conscripti "Roman senators," lit. "fathers," pl. of pater "father." Contrasted, in ancient Rome, with plebeius. Applied to noble citizens and higher orders of free folk in medieval It. and Ger. cities (sense attested in Eng. from 1611); hence "nobleman, aristocrat" in a modern sense (1631). As an adj., attested from 1620, from the noun.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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