different between gentry vs squirearchy

English

Etymology

From Old French genterise.

Pronunciation

• enPR: j?n?tr?, IPA^(key): /?d??nt?i/
• Rhymes: -?nt?i
• Hyphenation (US): gen?try

Noun

gentry (countable and uncountable, plural gentries)

1. Birth; condition; rank by birth.
2. Courtesy; civility; complaisance.
3. People of education and good breeding.
4. (Britain) In a restricted sense, those people between the nobility and the yeomanry.

Synonyms

• the quality, the Quality

Related terms

• gentrification

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• squirarchy

Etymology

squire +? -archy

Noun

squirearchy (plural squirearchies)

1. The landowning gentry.
   • 1930 [Cambridge University Press], G. G. Coulton, The Medieval Scene: An Informal Introduction to the Middle Ages, 2000, Dover, page 37,

     We may characterise medieval village government not unfairly as squirearchy, though often a benevolent squirearchy enough, just as the squirearchy of the eighteenth century was often benevolent also.

   • 1972, James A. Burkhart, Samuel Krislov, Raymond Lawrence Lee, American Government: the Clash of Issues, Prentice-Hall, page 92,

     For many years a combination of rural squirearchies and business interests held tight control of most state capitols.

Translations

References

• squirearchy at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “SQUIREARCHY” in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume V (R–S), London: Published by Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905, ?OCLC.

Further reading

• Landed gentry on Wikipedia.Wikipedia