aristocrat
- 01 C2 Proficiency
someone who believes that a small group of the 'best' or highest-ranking people should rule a country.
an advocate or proponent of aristocracy as a form of government.
Simple“In the debate, he spoke as an aristocrat who distrusted the will of the common people.”
In context“The philosopher was a staunch aristocrat, arguing that only those with superior education and character should hold executive power.”
- 02 C2 Proficiency
a type of secret code where the spaces and punctuation stay the same as the original message.
a simple substitution cipher in which the original word boundaries and punctuation are preserved.
Simple“The puzzle page included an aristocrat for readers to solve using logic.”
In context“Unlike more complex encryption, an aristocrat is relatively easy to break by analyzing the frequency of letters within known word structures.”
“Thus Gomez, after decades of portraying aristocrats on stage, in a splendid case of life mirroring art, spent her final years as a countess.”
“According to Truszynski, handwritten ledgers housed in the company’s archives indicate that its annual exports to Russia reached nearly 600,000 bottles in 1857, with Champagne-loving aristocrats eager to enjoy their favorite libations once again.”
From French aristocrate (“aristocrat”), attested once in the 16th century but recoined in the Revolutionary era, from aristocratie (“aristocracy”), from Medieval Latin aristocratia, from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratía), from ἄριστος (áristos, “best”) (compare Old English ar) + κράτος (krátos, “rule”). By surface analysis, aristo- + -crat.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.