The Collaborative International Dictionary
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. ?.]
Government by the best citizens.
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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. -
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. 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.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of aristocracy English)
Usage examples of "aristocracies".
A hereditary monarchy could be a republic, Adams held, as England demonstrated, and hereditary aristocracies could be usefully employed in balanced governments, as in the House of Lords.
And the threats he saw to the country: "The internal intrigues of our monied and landed and slaved aristocracies are and will be our ruin.
Periodically, the Princess of Phaolon was required to feast representatives of the several aristocracies of her realm.
It may have been something in the nature of a renewal of the aristocrats in their rank, or a symbolic token of the interdependency of the sovereign and the aristocracies, ritualized by their sharing of a common meal, or something to do with the national religion, which as yet I understood imperfectly.
Simple, loyal Panthonl Once in a while, on formal occasions, I dined in state before the assembled court and in the company of the exquisite young princess, in the grand banquet hall of her palace, These feasts were ceremonial functions, performed periodically, to which members of the various ranks of the aristocracies were invited on a sort of rotation system.
Custom, ritual, precedent, and tradition rule the Laonese aristocracies and, to a lesser extent, the common folk, and this endlessly complicated code of ceremonial behavior controlled and governed virtually every phase and detail of everyday life.
I use the plural, "aristocracies," because the Laonese society was an hierarchical one, made up of a number of different ranks.
Laura soon discovered that there were three distinct aristocracies in Washington.
Laura concluded, after reflection, to let circumstances determine the course it might be best for her to pursue as regarded the several aristocracies.
The contrivances for perpetuating the grandeur of families in monarchical governments ought never to be employed in aristocracies.
The best, and indeed the only thing to help is, that the two other aristocracies make common cause to keep the rich in their proper place.
In the French revolution of July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart.
In the French Revolution of July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart.
Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who form such governments.
Right from the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies.