patrician

Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

pa·tri·cian

(pə-trĭsh′ən)

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 bc 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.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

patrician

(pəˈtrɪʃən)

1. (Historical Terms) a member of the hereditary aristocracy of ancient Rome. In the early republic the patricians held almost all the higher offices. Compare plebs²

2. (Historical Terms) a high nonhereditary title awarded by Constantine and his eastern Roman successors for services to the empire

3. (Historical Terms) (in medieval Europe)

a. a title borne by numerous princes including several emperors from the 8th to the 12th centuries

b. a member of the upper class in numerous Italian republics and German free cities

4. an aristocrat

5. a person of refined conduct, tastes, etc

adj

6. (Historical Terms) (esp in ancient Rome) of, relating to, or composed of patricians

7. aristocratic

8. oligarchic and often antidemocratic or nonpopular: patrician political views.

[C15: from Old French patricien, from Latin patricius noble, from pater father]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pa•tri•cian

(pəˈtrɪʃ ən)

n.

1. a person of noble or high rank; aristocrat.

2. a person of breeding, education, and refinement.

3. a member of the original hereditary aristocracy of ancient Rome, having such privileges as the exclusive right to hold certain offices. Compare plebs (def. 1).

adj.

4. of high social rank or noble family; aristocratic.

5. befitting of, or characteristic of, patricians.

[1400–50; late Middle English patricion < Old French patricien < Latin patrici(us) patrician (pat(e)r father + -icius adj. suffix)]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	patrician - a person of refined upbringing and manners adult, grownup - a fully developed person from maturity onward
	2.	patrician - a member of the aristocracy aristocrat, blue blood aristocracy, nobility - a privileged class holding hereditary titles leader - a person who rules or guides or inspires others baronet, Bart - a member of the British order of honor; ranks below a baron but above a knight; "since he was a baronet he had to be addressed as Sir Henry Jones, Bart." brahman, brahmin - a member of a social and cultural elite (especially a descendant of an old New England family); "a Boston brahman" female aristocrat - a woman who is an aristocrat Highness - (Your Highness or His Highness or Her Highness) title used to address a royal person male aristocrat - a man who is an aristocrat prince - a male member of a royal family other than the sovereign (especially the son of a sovereign) princess - a female member of a royal family other than the queen (especially the daughter of a sovereign) raja, rajah - a prince or king in India ranee, rani - (the feminine of raja) a Hindu princess or the wife of a raja
Adj.	1.	patrician - befitting a person of noble origin; "a patrician nose" refined - (used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel; "she was delicate and refined and unused to hardship"; "refined people with refined taste"
	2.	patrician - belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; "an aristocratic family"; "aristocratic Bostonians"; "aristocratic government"; "a blue family"; "blue blood"; "the blue-blooded aristocracy"; "of gentle blood"; "patrician landholders of the American South"; "aristocratic bearing"; "aristocratic features"; "patrician tastes" aristocratic, aristocratical, blue-blooded, gentle, blue noble - of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times; "of noble birth"

patrician

noun

1. aristocrat, peer, noble, nobleman, aristo (informal) He was a patrician, born to wealth.

adjective

1. aristocratic, noble, lordly, high-class, blue-blooded, highborn a member of a patrician German family

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

patrician

adjective

Of high birth or social position:

aristocratic, blue-blooded, elite, highborn, highbred, noble, thoroughbred, upper-class, wellborn.

Informal: upper-crust.

Translations

patrícius

patrizio

patrician

[pəˈtrɪʃən]

A. ADJ → patricio

B. N → patricio/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

patrician

adj → patrizisch; the patrician classes → das Patriziertum; the old patrician houses → die alten Patrizierhäuser

n → Patrizier(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

patrician

[pəˈtrɪʃən] (frm)

1. adj (family, looks, features) → aristocratico/a

2. n → nobile m/f

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.

View in context

In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.

View in context

During my first year in Venice I met an ingenious priest, who had been a tutor in a patrician family, and who was willing to lead my faltering steps through the "Inferno." This part of the "Divine Comedy" I read with a beginner's carefulness, and with a rapture in its beauties, which I will whisper the reader do not appear in every line.

View in context

We have driven in the Prado--that superb avenue bordered with patrician mansions and noble shade trees--and have visited the chateau Boarely and its curious museum.

View in context

Tarzan's mouth watered and a low growl escaped his patrician lips.

View in context

It is well known that in the Roman republic the legislative authority, in the last resort, resided for ages in two different political bodies not as branches of the same legislature, but as distinct and independent legislatures, in each of which an opposite interest prevailed: in one the patrician; in the other, the plebian.

View in context

"Oh, Crimsworth is better filled up than I am, I know besides he has a straight nose, arched eyebrows, and all that; but these advantages--if they are advantages--he did not inherit from his mother, the patrician, but from his father, old Crimsworth, who, MY father says, was as veritable a shire blue-dyer as ever put indigo in a vat yet withal the handsomest man in the three Ridings.

Hunsden, that patrician descent may be read in a distinctive cast of form and features?"

View in context

A great silence fell on the group of patricians, and the commercial party, surprised, were equally silent, trying to discover the subject of this earnest conference.

She was like a queen in the midst of her court; she paid no attention to the profound silence that reigned among the patricians, and passed before their camp without pronouncing a single word.

View in context

With a large allowance for difference of tastes, and with all submission to the patricians of Coketown, this seemed so extraordinary a source of interest to take so much trouble about, that it perplexed him.