PATRICIAN • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Patrician

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/pətrˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Patrician n.

(Rom. Antiq.) Originally, a member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the nobility.

A person of high birth; a nobleman.

One familiar with the works of the Christian Fathers; one versed in patristic lore. (R.)

adjective

Patrician adj.

(Rom. Antiq.) Of or pertaining to the Roman patres (fathers) or senators, or patricians.

Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian. "Born in the patrician file of society." "His horse's hoofs wet with patrician blood."

See images of 'Patrician'

Etymology of 'Patrician'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Patrician" Quotes from Famous Books

... wife or the daughter, would not dare to leave one shilling of a gambling debt unpaid—the one would bring down upon him the odium of his circle, but the other would not; and the odium of that circle is the only kind of odium he dreads. Appius Claudius apprehended no odium from his own order—the patrician—from the violation of the daughter of Virginius, of the plebeian order; nor did Sextus Tarquinius of the royal order, apprehend any from the violation of Lucretia, of the patrician order—neither would have been punished by their own ...

— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... the tea. She wore her hair braided in two big plaits which hung between her shoulders, and her bold, careless glance from eyes sea-blue made the Irishman forget his host and the rigours of the afternoon. A Russian beauty, with bare, plump arms, and dressed in peasant costume; but—a patrician! Her fair skin and blond hair filled him with admiration. What the devil!—he thought, and ...

— Visionaries • James Huneker

... was soon to be sharply contested. Ever since 1723 the directors of the opera had been trying to secure Faustina Bordoni, and at last, with a promise of L2,500 for the season (Cuzzoni received L2,000), they succeeded. Faustina was born of a patrician family at Venice in 1700; she had been brought up under the protection of Alessandro Marcello, brother of the well-known composer, and had made her debut at Venice at the age of sixteen. She sang mostly at Venice for several years, and in ...

— Handel • Edward J. Dent

... grandiose traits. Your compositions are the most brilliant of bastards, the most lamentable of legitimate things. They smite us with both admiration and aversion, affect us as though the scarlet satin robes of a patrician of Venice were to betray the presence beneath them of foul, unsightly rags. They remind us of the facades of the palaces of Vicenza, which, designed by the pompous and classicizing Palladio, are executed in stucco and ...

— Musical Portraits - Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers • Paul Rosenfeld

... did not take to literature and science, because these pursuits require severe work and more or less of a strong bias, for a thorough exposition of their profound penetralia. It may be, too, that their assumed patrician sensitiveness shrank from entering into competition with the plebeian fellows who had to study hard and write voluminously for a few pennies to keep soul and body together. And your Southern grandees, before the war, were ...

— Black and White - Land, Labor, and Politics in the South • Timothy Thomas Fortune

More quotes...