Burgher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burgher can refer to:
- a title; in the European Middle Ages, a burgher was any freeman of a burgh or borough; or any inhabitant of a borough, a person who lives in town (in Dutch the word for citizen is burger and the German cognate is Bürger). The term may also refer to a member of the middle class such as in bourgeois.
In pre-modern Sweden and Finland, burghers were an independent estate with a monopoly in trade; the label survives in both countries. In Finland, porvari means "right-winger" as in porvaripuolueet which means "right-wing parties". In Sweden, the four modern centre-right parliamentary political parties are collectively referred to as de borgerliga (in English, the burgherly). A person from Edinburgh, Scotland, is an Edinburgher.
- an ethnic group (see Burgher people).
- a member of the social class of bourgeoisie
- an enfranchised citizen of the South African Republic (Transvaal) during the years of its existence (1857 to 1900).