burgher

C2+ Topic:Places & Geography

US /ˈbɜrɡɚ/ UK /ˈbɜːɡə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a citizen of a town, especially a prosperous middle-class one

The wealthy burghers of the city funded the new cathedral.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a citizen of a town,... citizen townsman burgess freeman bourgeois resident

Word family

Related forms borough burgessburg

Simplified etymology

Burgher, meaning an inhabitant of a borough, entered English in the mid-16th century. Its form and use were reinforced by Dutch burger, derived from burg, “castle.”

Etymology

From Middle Dutch or Middle High German burger ('citizen of a town'), from burg ('fortified town'), from Proto-Germanic *burgz, with the English spelling shaped by analogy with borough.

burger Middle Dutch *burgz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Places & Geography Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# burgher

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɜrɡɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbɜːɡə/

## Meanings
1. a citizen of a town, especially a prosperous middle-class one

## Examples
- The wealthy burghers of the city funded the new cathedral.

## Synonyms
- citizen
- townsman
- burgess
- freeman
- bourgeois
- resident

## Related Forms
- borough
- burgess
- burg

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: burger
- Root: *burgz

## Etymology
From Middle Dutch or Middle High German burger ('citizen of a town'), from burg ('fortified town'), from Proto-Germanic *burgz, with the English spelling shaped by analogy with borough.

## AI Etymology
Burgher comes from Middle Dutch or Middle High German burger ('citizen of a town'), from burg ('fortified town'), from Proto-Germanic *burgz, with the English spelling shaped by analogy with borough. The historical trail runs through burger in Middle Dutch and *burgz in Proto-Germanic. Used as a noun, burgher now means "a citizen of a town, especially a prosperous middle-class one", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as borough, burgess, and burg. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.

## Topics
- Places & Geography
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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