Citoyen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person recognized as a member of a city or state, entitled to rights and duties within the community; an individual who participates in civic duties and social responsibilities; a resident who possesses legal status in a political entity
2. An individual legally acknowledged as part of a municipality or nation, with associated privileges and obligations; someone actively engaged in the affairs and governance of their locality; a recognized member of a governed society with rights and duties
3. A member of a defined political community, legally entitled to benefits and expected to fulfill obligations; a participant in local or national civic life; a recognized inhabitant with standing in social and legal matters within a state or city

Etymology: "Citoyen" entered English from French, where it had been a Middle French word for a city dweller, derived from "cite" (city) with the suffix "-ain" denoting a person of a place. The French form was itself rooted in Latin "civitas," the word for a city or citizenship, which also gave English "city" and "civic." In Old French the sense was narrowly urban: a townsman with rights of residence in a particular municipality, distinct from a rural serf or a noble. The word's modern political charge came during the French Revolution, when it was adopted as the form of address "citoyen" (citizen) replacing "monsieur" in official and revolutionary speech. In 1793 the Jacobin government made it a standard title, and speakers used it to signal political equality and shared civic duty across social classes. English writers took it up in the same period, often with a slightly foreign, revolutionary flavour that has never fully faded.

Synonyms: citizen, inhabitant, resident, denizen, subject

Antonyms: foreigner, alien, stranger, outsider, immigrant