Originally, a member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the the senior class of Romans, who, with certain property, had by right a seat in the Roman Senate
belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; "an aristocratic family"; "aristocratic Bostonians"; "aristocratic government"; "a blue family"; "blue blood"; "the blue-blooded aristocracy"; "of gentle blood"; "patrician landholders of the American South"; "aristocratic bearing"; "aristocratic features"; "patrician tastes"
Originally, a member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the nobility
Member of an order of high nobility in Byzantium appointed by the emperor; on occasions foreign princes were honored with this rank by the Byzantine emperor
properly speaking, is one of the patres or fathers of Rome These patres were the senators, and their descendants were the patricians As they held for many years all the honours of the state, the word came to signify the magnates or nobility of a nation N B In Rome the patrician class was twice augmented: first by Tatius, after the Sabine war, who added a whole century; and again by Tarquinius Priscus, who added another The Sabine century went by the name of patricians of the senior races (majorum gentium), and the Tarquinian patricians were termed of the junior creation (minorum gentium)
a person of refined upbringing and manners of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the Byzantine empire
\puh-TRISH-un\, noun: 1 A member of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome 2 A person of high birth; a nobleman 3 A person of refined upbringing, manners, and taste
If you describe someone as patrician, you mean that they behave in a sophisticated way, and look as though they are from a high social rank. He was a lean, patrician gent in his early sixties. In ancient Rome, any member of a group of citizen families who, in contrast to the plebeians, formed a privileged nobility. They attempted to hold on to magistracies, priesthoods, and legal and religious knowledge, and the great civil struggle of the Roman republic was the effort of the plebeians to achieve equality and break the patrician monopoly. Gradually the patricians lost their monopoly except in a few areas, such as selected priesthoods and the office of interrex and in the late republic (1st century BC) the distinction lost political importance. After 27 BC, patrician rank was necessary for ascent to the imperial throne. After Constantine's reign (AD 337), the term became an honorary title with no particular power