roturier

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a commoner, especially a person who belonged to neither the nobility nor the clergy in pre-Revolutionary France

   The prosperous roturier could own land and hold wealth without acquiring noble status.

2. 2
   adj

   historical: belonging to or characteristic of the common social rank rather than the nobility

   The memoir contrasts aristocratic privilege with roturier occupations and taxes.

Borrowed from French roturier, 'commoner or non-noble,' from roture, the condition or tenure of a commoner. Roture is related to Medieval Latin ruptura, land newly broken for cultivation, because such tenure was associated with ordinary freeholders rather than nobles.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary