3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Aristocracy \Ar`is*toc"ra*cy\, n.; pl {Aristocracies}. [Gr. ?;
? best + ? to be strong, to rule ? strength; ? is perh. from
the same root as E. arm, and orig. meant fitting: cf F.
aristocratie. See {Arm}, and {Create}, which is related to
Gr ?.]
1. Government by the best citizens.
2. A ruling body composed of the best citizens. [Obs.]
In the Senate Right not our quest in this I will
protest them To all the world, no aristocracy. --B.
Jonson
3. A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested
in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged
order an oligarchy.
The aristocracy of Venice hath admitted so many
abuses, trough the degeneracy of the nobles, that
the period of its duration seems approach. --Swift.
4. The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class
or patrician order (in a popular use) those who are
regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in
rank, fortune, or intellect.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
aristocracy
n 1: a privileged class holding hereditary titles [syn: {nobility}]
2: the most powerful members of a society [syn: {gentry}]
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
ARISTOCRACY, n. Government by the best men. (In this sense the word
is obsolete; so is that kind of government.) Fellows that wear downy
hats and clean shirts -- guilty of education and suspected of bank
accounts.
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