the.com/nobility
a club whose dues were paid in someone else's blood and your great-great-grandfather's nerve
means The class of people who hold inherited aristocratic rank and titles — or, more abstractly, the quality of having a noble, high-minded character.
from From Latin nobilis, "well-known, famous, of high birth" — which traces back to the root of noscere, "to know." The earliest nobles were quite literally the notable ones, the people everybody knew about. English took the word in around the 14th century through Old French noblete. So the word carries its own quiet admission: nobility was less about virtue than about being recognized — a name that preceded you into every room.
- origin myth
- most titles trace back to a successful thug
- tax dodge
- French nobles were largely exempt until 1789 ended that
- the word
- shares a root with 'knowable' — the famous ones
- living relics
- the UK still seats hereditary lords in Parliament
- obligation clause
- noblesse oblige meant privilege supposedly owed duty
house of windsor — british royal family ruling since 1901, currently king charles iii
house of bourbon — spanish royal family ruling spain since 1700, currently king felipe vi
house of orange-nassau — dutch royal family ruling netherlands since 1815, currently king willem-alexander
peerage system uk — 1,200+ hereditary and life peers in house of lords, established medieval england