burgher

Meaning

Noun

• A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.
• A prosperous member of the community; a middle class citizen (may connote complacency).

Origin

• From Middle English burger, burgher, burghere, equivalent to burgh + -er. 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; derivative of burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. Compare also Old English burgwaras and Serbo-Croatian purger. More at borough.