patriciate

patriciate (plural patriciates)

1. The rank of a patrician
2. The aristocracy or nobility
   • 1902, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove:

     The idea of his frivolity had, no doubt, to do with his personal designation, which represented—as yet, for our young woman, a little confusedly—a connection with an historic patriciate, a class that, in turn, also confusedly, represented an affinity with a social element that she had never heard otherwise described than as "fashion."

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