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more about aristocracy
aristocracy |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Aristocracy \Ar`is*toc"ra*cy\, n.; pl {Aristocracies}. [Gr. ?; ? best + ? to be strong, to rule ? strength; ? is perh. from the same root as E. arm, and orig. meant fitting: cf F. aristocratie. See {Arm}, and {Create}, which is related to Gr ?.] 1. Government by the best citizens. 2. A ruling body composed of the best citizens. [Obs.] In the Senate Right not our quest in this I will protest them To all the world, no aristocracy. --B. Jonson 3. A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order an oligarchy. The aristocracy of Venice hath admitted so many abuses, trough the degeneracy of the nobles, that the period of its duration seems approach. --Swift. 4. The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class or patrician order (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: aristocracy n 1: a privileged class holding hereditary titles [syn: {nobility}] 2: the most powerful members of a society [syn: {gentry}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: ARISTOCRACY, n. Government by the best men. (In this sense the word is obsolete; so is that kind of government.) Fellows that wear downy hats and clean shirts -- guilty of education and suspected of bank accounts.
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