burgher:
(plural: ‘burghers‘; female: ‘burgess’; the letter ‘u’ rhymes with the letter ‘u’ in “burn”)
a medieval burgher
(old usage — mostly used in the medieval times in Europe) a citizen of a medieval Europe; a middle class business man;
(in the present usage) a person from the middle class of the society who lives in a town (or a borough) in Europe;
a citizen of English borough,
e.g.
The chartered burghers of the early towns are known to have sprung from the serfs of the middle ages. (from sentence.yourdictionary.com)
The burghers and the brugesses met at the centre of the town to discuss the domestic problems.
For an interesting article on South African burghers, please click here.
Note: (1) ‘Burger’, which rhymes with ‘burgher’, is a kind of sandwich, e.g. hamburger, cheese burger, beefburger, etc. (2) ‘Burgher’ & ‘Burgess’, always with capital “B”, are often found in the names of people, e.g. Anthony Burgess, Robert Burgess, Mike Burgher, etc.
