Nobilitas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used to denote the social class of nobility, often associated with hereditary titles and privileges
2. Referring to the quality or state of being noble, typically involving virtue, honor, and high moral principles
3. Describing the aristocratic rank or lineage that is characterized by distinguished ancestry and societal influence

Etymology: "Nobilitas" is Latin for the condition of being well known, notable, or distinguished, and it came to mean the aristocratic class only because of how Roman society sorted people. It is formed from "nobilis," which literally meant "known" or "knowable," from the same root that gives English "notice" and "know." A man became "nobilis" when his ancestors had held curule office, the high magistracies such as consul, so that the label rested on a family's public record rather than on inherited wealth or land alone. The abstract noun "nobilitas" was therefore a social category, not merely a compliment. Roman writers used it for the group of families whose members had reached those offices, and the sense of a closed, hereditary class grew out of that record of public service. English took the word and its relatives through French, so the modern idea of a noble class carries the Roman habit of defining rank by visible achievement.

Synonyms: nobility, aristocracy, gentry, elite

Antonyms: commoners, plebeians, proletariat