peerage

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English perage, from Old French parage. By surface analysis, peer +‎ -age. Doublet of parage.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pîr′ĭj
• (Received Pronunciation, Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪə.ɪdʒ/, [ˈpɪə̯.ɹɪdʒ], [ˈpɪː.ɹɪdʒ]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɹ.ɪdʒ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpiə.ɹədʒ/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈpiɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/
• Hyphenation: peer‧age

Noun

peerage (countable and uncountable, plural peerages)

1. Peers as a group; the titled nobility or aristocracy.
2. The rank or title of a peer or peeress.
   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC, section 2, page 173:

     “Two or three months more went by; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichborne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest.

3. A book listing such people and their families.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• peerdom
• peership

Derived terms

• beerage

Translations

peers as a group

• Bulgarian: пе́рове (bg) m pl (pérove)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Adel (de) m
• Irish: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: please add this translation if you can

  Nynorsk: please add this translation if you can

• Portuguese: pariato (pt) m
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

the rank or title of a peer

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• French: pairie (fr) f
• German: Adelstitel (de) m
• Irish: tiarnas m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: please add this translation if you can

  Nynorsk: please add this translation if you can

• Portuguese: pares (pt) m pl
• Spanish: pairía f, título nobiliario (es) m

book listing peers and their families

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: adelskalender (no) m

  Nynorsk: adelskalender m

• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• aristocracy
• bunyip aristocracy

Further reading

• “peerage”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.