French aristocrat

Pre-revolution elite member

A French aristocrat is a member of the hereditary noble class of France—historically titled families holding ranks like duke, marquis, count, or baron.

The term often evokes pre-Revolutionary France, when the aristocracy held vast estates and political power until 1789.

Today it may describe descendants of those families or, loosely, anyone embodying refined French elegance and hauteur: He carried himself like a French aristocrat.

Related

patronage · silk · powder · powder room · monarchy · Marie Antoinette · marquis · salons · court intrigue · viscount · chevalier · diplomacy · noblesse oblige · hunting party · carriage ride · fan · heraldry · peerage

Opposites
social class

French aristocratserf

Bonded agricultural laborer

sans-culotte · pauper · servant · tenant farmer · the masses

revolutionary politics

French aristocratrevolutionary

Seeking fundamental systemic change

Jacobin · sans-culotte · Robespierre · Marat · émigré

Family

French, Frenchman, Frenchwoman, Frenchness, aristocrat, aristocrats, aristocracy, aristocratic, aristocratically

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G