magnate

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.

   I have decided to become an oil magnate, after spending quite some time reading the dictionary definition of the word magnate.

2. 2
   noun

   A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.

   He mingled with the Magnates of his land; / Join'd the carousals of the great and gay, […]

3. 3
   noun

   In medieval and early modern Italy, a member of a legally defined category of especially wealthy patrician families, often deprived of the right to political participation by republican governments.

   Those considered politically dangerous could be excluded from office by declaring them magnates, while cancellation of magnate status was a mark of favour, a means of political patronage.

4. 4
   noun

   a very wealthy or powerful businessman

Etymology

Borrowed into late Middle English from Late Latin magnātēs, plural of magnās, from magnus (“great”), mid 15th c.