Meanings
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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.
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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.
Thesaurus
Etymology
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.