patrician

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patrician a member of a noble family or class in ancient Rome. The rank was originally hereditary, but in Imperial Rome patricians could be appointed by the emperor. In the later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, patrician was an honorific title bestowed by the Emperor at Byzantium, introduced by Constantine I; it was also used for an officer, originally bearing this distinction, sent or appointed as representative of the Byzantine Emperor to administer the provinces of Italy and Africa.

In extended use, an aristocrat or nobleman, a member of a long-established wealthy family. Recorded from late Middle English, the word comes via Old French from Latin patricius ‘having a noble father’.

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