burgess

Meanings

1. An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
2. A town magistrate.
3. A representative of a borough in the Parliament.
4. A member of the House of Burgesses, a legislative body in colonial America, established by the Virginia Company to provide civil rule in the colonies.

1. A surname transferred from the common noun.
2. A number of places in the United States:
3. A township in Bond County, Illinois.
4. An unincorporated community in Hayes Township, Charlevoix County, Michigan.
5. A village in Barton County, Missouri.
6. An unincorporated community in Horry County, South Carolina.
7. An unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Virginia.

Etymology

From Middle English burgeis, from Anglo-Norman burgeis, of Proto-Germanic origin; either from Late Latin burgensis (from Latin burgus), or from Frankish *burg, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. See also borough, bourgeois, burgish.