peerage

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the rank, title, or dignity of a British peer

   The statesman accepted a life peerage after leaving the cabinet.

2. 2
   noun

   the peers of a country considered collectively as a social or political body

   The reform changed the composition of the hereditary peerage.

3. 3
   noun

   a reference book listing peers, their titles, genealogy, and family history

   She checked the peerage to confirm the date of the marriage.

From Middle English perage and Old French parage, related to peer, 'an equal,' + -age. It came to denote both the body of titled peers and the status of belonging to it; from the eighteenth century, it also named genealogical reference books about those families.

Topics