Aristocrat

An aristocrat is a person of the highest social class of a society. In many places, aristocrats have hereditary titles. In some societies such as Ancient Greece, Rome, and India, aristocratic status may come from membership in a military caste. It has also been very common for aristocrats to belong to priestly dynasties.

Aristocratic status can involve feudal or legal privileges.^[1] They are usually below only the monarch of a country or nation in its social hierarchy. In modern era European societies, the term aristocracy has often been used synonymously with the nobility. This was a specific class that arose in the Middle Ages. The term aristocracy derives from the Greek ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratia ἄριστος (aristos) "excellent," and κράτος (kratos) "power".^[2]

Related pages

References

↑ The aristocrats: a portrait of Britain's nobility and their way of life today, by Roy Perrott, (London 1968), page5-10
↑ The Oxford Companion to British History, John Cannon (Editor), Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-866176-4

[1] The aristocrats: a portrait of Britain's nobility and their way of life today, by Roy Perrott, (London 1968), page5-10

[2] The Oxford Companion to British History, John Cannon (Editor), Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-866176-4

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