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Aristocrat vs Highborn - What's the difference?

aristocrat | highborn |

As a noun aristocrat

is one of the aristocracy, nobility, or people of rank in a community; one of a ruling class; a noble (originally in revolutionary france).

As an adjective highborn is

(archaic) of high social standing as a result of having been born a member of an upper-level social class.

aristocrat

English

(Aristocracy)

Noun

(en noun)
  • One of the aristocracy, nobility, or people of rank in a community; one of a ruling class; a noble (originally in Revolutionary France).
  • A proponent of aristocracy; an advocate of aristocratic government.
  • * 1974 : (2nd edition, revised; Penguin Classics; ISBN 0140440488), Translator’s Introduction, pages 51 and 53:
    • Professor Fite, in The Platonic Legend , deprecates earlier idealization, and finds Plato to be an aristocrat , something of a snob, and the advocate of a restrictively organized society.
    Plato was, as has so often been observed, temperamentally an aristocrat . And he believed that the qualities needed in his rulers were, in general, hereditary, and that given knowledge and opportunity you could deliberately breed for them.

    Related terms

    * aristocracy * aristocratic

    Hyponyms

    * See also

    highborn

    English

    Alternative forms

    * high-born

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (archaic) Of high social standing as a result of having been born a member of an upper-level social class.
  • * 1596 , , King John , act 5 sc. 2,
    • I am too high-born to be propertied,
    To be a secondary at control.
  • * 1672 , , "The Righteous Man's Excellency" in A plea for the Godly , Thomas Parkhurst, page 95,
    • It is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Princes strong drink. It becomes not them who are highborn to be intemperate.
  • * 1781 , , "Waller" in Lives of the Poets ,
    • His acquaintance with this high-born dame gave wit no opportunity of boasting its influence; she was not to be subdued by the powers of verse, but rejected his addresses, it is said, with disdain.
  • * 1857 , The Virginians , ch. 63,
    • The young Irishman was not a little touched and elated by the highborn damsel's partiality for him.
  • * 1920 , , The Rescue , ch 4,
    • Was he not Rajah Hassim and was not the other a man of strong heart, of strong arm, of proud courage, a man great enough to protect highborn princes?
  • * 2007 , Lesley White, " Face of Tories' new deal—Gordon Brown is enjoying a honeymoon now," The Australian , 14 July,
    • He is a career rather than a conviction politician, but too highborn to be written off as a mere scaler of the greasy pole. He is a scion of the class that, deep down, believes it was born to rule.
  • (archaic) Born a member of an upper-level social class (although not necessarily retaining high social standing)
  • * 1848 , , The History of England from the Accession of James II , volume 5, ch. 23,
    • The selfish, base, covetous, father-in-law was not at all desirous to have a highborn beggar and the posterity of a highborn beggar to maintain.
  • * 1996 , Peter F. Ainsworth, "'The Letter Killeth': Law and Spirit in Marie De France's Lay of Le Fresne''," ''French Studies , volume L, no. 1 (Jan.), page 5,
    • The references to the lady's long-standing affection for her loyal, high-born servant girl provide a succinct intimation that the lady herself is not a wholly repellent character.
  • * 2007 , " Travelling to his African home" Church Times , UK, 9 Mar, iss. 7513,
    • Mrs Monteith was able to tell her son about their high-born slave ancestor because he had left a memoir.
  • Of, pertaining to, or befitting people of high social standing.
  • * 1670 , Richard Crashaw, "To the Queen's Majesty on Twelfth-day" in Steps to the temple; The delights of the Muses; and, ''Carmen'' Deo Nostro , Herringman (London),
    • In this illustrious throng, your lofty flood
    Swells high, fair confluence of all highborn Blood.
  • * 1820 , , The Cenci , act 2, sc. 2.2,
    • I should have then
    Been trained in no highborn necessities
    Which I could meet not by my daily toil.
  • * 1996 , Jayne M. Blanchard, "Cherry Jubilee: New artistic director Joe Dowling sees the comedy in Chekhov and intends to bring a lighter 'Cherry Orchard' to the Guthrie Stage," St. Paul Pioneer Press , 17 June, p, 8B,
    • Dowling says that most performances of Chekhov plays have been filtered through translations into a British highborn sensibility.
  • * 2002 , Kevin B. Blackistone, "Baffert trained for the spotlight," The Dallas Morning News , 28 May,
    • If anyone in the highborn sport known as thoroughbred horse racing has swagger these days, it is Baffert.
  • (figuratively) Of superior or premium quality; magnificent; expensive.
  • * 2007 , " 1999 Corvette FRC - All The King's Horses," Vette Web ,
    • The tires are highborn Pirelli P Zeroes in appropriately majestic sizes.
  • * 2007 , " Oregon Coast Travel Tips: Complete Tour of Seaside," beachconnection.net , 18 July,
    • Gearhart is worth taking a bit of time to ogle the highborn homes along the backroads near the beach.

    Antonyms

    * low-born

    References

    * * * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989)