: of, relating to, having, or characterized by high birth, rank, or station : aristocratic
a patrician family
But coming from a long patrician line of New England gentry … he is vulnerable to the populist card that his rivals are playing hard. Peter Oborne
More common than middle-class organizations in the mid-nineteenth century, however, were the exclusive patrician male enclaves, such as Boston's Somerset club … Howard P. Chudacoff
b
: associated with or characteristic of people of high social rank
his patrician bearing
a stately, patrician residence
… they spent freely on virtually everything that could be acquired to accommodate a patrician life-style. Simon Schama
… some visitors may prefer the more patrician comfort of hotels in L'Aquila. Niccolò Vivarelli
2
: of or relating to a member of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome
… his pride was gratified by the choice of Nomius and Anatolius, two ministers of consular or patrician rank … Edward Gibbon
Did you know?
A patrician was originally a descendant of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome. Until about 350 B.C., only patricians could hold the office of senator, consul, or pontifex (priest). Later, the word was applied to members of the nobility created by the Roman emperor Constantine. As time went by, other nobles, such as those in medieval Italian republics and in German city-states, also came to be known as patricians. Today someone's appearance, manners, or tastes can be described as patrician, whether the person is actually of high birth or not. The actress Grace Kelly, an immigrant's daughter, was admired for her patrician beauty even before she became Princess Grace of Monaco, with classic features worthy of ancient Rome's finest sculptors.
Noun the Southern patricians who once resided in these stately plantation homes
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Bush, a New England patrician, was hardly a comedian. Noah Biermanstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 2022 Only Goode seems to be having any fun, strutting around as Hollywood royalty while wrapping everything in Evans’ patrician-with-a-head-cold voice. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 28 Apr. 2022 Alice was a New England patrician, with a degree from Smith College, who appears to have had an ardent but melancholic relationship with Jean, exacerbated by the turbulence of their era. Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022 The suggestion that the first President Bush was some elitist patrician who didn’t know his way around a modern grocery store continues to rankle Barr three decades later.New York Times, 27 Feb. 2022 Published in German during the 15th century, it was then said to describe the pilgrimage of Gabriel Muffel, son of a Nuremburg patrician. Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Jan. 2020 People around town have never much cared for caricatures of the place—the starchy patricians, the chinless wonders, the history of exclusion—even when there is truth in them. Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 3 May 2020 For the dearth, / The gods, not the patricians, make it, and / Your knees to them, not arms, must help. James Shapiro, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2020 Belgravia, named for the tony London neighborhood still home to Britain's most affluent patricians, begins in Brussels on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Apr. 2020 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English patricion, from Anglo-French patrician, from Latin patricius, from patres senators, from plural of pater father — more at father