Aristocrat

An aristocrat is a person of the highest social class of a society. In many places, aristocrats have hereditary titles. In some societies such as Ancient Greece, Rome, and India, aristocratic status may come from membership in a military caste. It has also been very common for aristocrats to belong to priestly dynasties.

Aristocratic status can involve feudal or legal privileges.The aristocrats: a portrait of Britain's nobility and their way of life today, by Roy Perrott, (London 1968), page5-10 They are usually below only the monarch of a country or nation in its social hierarchy. In modern era European societies, the term aristocracy has often been used synonymously with the nobility. This was a specific class that arose in the Middle Ages. The term aristocracy derives from the Greek  ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratia ἄριστος (aristos) "excellent," and κράτος (kratos) "power".The Oxford Companion to British History, John Cannon (Editor), Oxford University Press, 1997, 

 Related pages 
 Aristocracy
 Gentry
 Nobility
 Royal family

 References 

Category:Social classes