Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » patrician

patrician

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

The definition of a patrician is a noble person or a person who has a respected social status.

(noun)

A member of the royal family is an example of someone who is patrician.

Patrician is defined as someone belonging to or related to a royal, noble or wealthy family.

(adjective)

Someone who is very well-to-do and who attends private schools throughout his childhood is an example of someone who would be described as having a patrician upbringing.

See patrician in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

in ancient Rome
1. a member of any of the ancient Roman citizen families
2. later, a member of the nobility
3. a member of a class of honorary nobility of the later Empire
4. a chief administrator in the Roman provinces in Africa and Italy
a person of high rank in some medieval Italian republics and in certain free cities of the German Empire
any person of high social rank; aristocrat

Origin: ME patricion < MFr patricien < L patricius < patres, senators, lit., fathers, pl. of pater, father

adjective

of or characteristic of patricians
noble; aristocratic

Origin: MFr patricien

See patrician in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A person of refined upbringing, manners, and tastes.
A member of an aristocracy; an aristocrat.
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.
Used as a title for members of a class of honorary nobility appointed by the Byzantine emperors.
A member of the hereditary ruling class in the medieval free cities of Italy and Germany.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English patricion

Origin: , from Old French patricien

Origin: , from Latin patricius

Origin: , from patrēs (cōnscrīptī), enrolled fathers, senators

Origin: , pl. of pater, patr-, father; see pəter- in Indo-European roots

Related Forms: