Alderman

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Alderman \Al"der*man\ ([add]l"d[~e]r*man), n.; pl. {Aldermen}.
     [AS. aldormon, ealdorman; ealdor an elder + man. See {Elder},
     n.]
     1. A senior or superior; a person of rank or dignity. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  


     Note: The title was applied, among the Anglo-Saxons, to
           princes, dukes, earls, senators, and presiding
           magistrates; also to archbishops and bishops, implying
           superior wisdom or authority. Thus Ethelstan, duke of
           the East-Anglians, was called Alderman of all England;
           and there were aldermen of cities, counties, and
           castles, who had jurisdiction within their respective
           districts.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. One of a board or body of municipal officers next in order
        to the mayor and having a legislative function. They may,
        in some cases, individually exercise some magisterial and
        administrative functions.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  alderman
       n : a member of a municipal legislative body (as a city
           council); "aldermen usually represent city wards"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  54 Moby Thesaurus words for "alderman":
     MP, Member of Congress, Member of Parliament, archon, assemblyman,
     bailie, burghermaster, burgomaster, cabinet member,
     cabinet minister, chancellor, chosen freeholder, city councilman,
     city father, city manager, commissar, commissioner, congressman,
     congresswoman, councillor, councilman, councilwoman,
     county commissioner, county supervisor, elder, floor leader,
     headman, induna, lawgiver, lawmaker, legislator, lord mayor,
     magistrate, maire, majority leader, mayor, minister,
     minister of state, minority leader, party whip, portreeve, reeve,
     representative, secretary, secretary of state, selectman, senator,
     solon, state senator, supervisor, syndic, undersecretary, warden,
     whip
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ALDERMAN. An officer, generally appointed or elected in towns corporate, or
  cities, possessing various powers in different places.
       2. The aldermen of the cities of Pennsylvania, possess all the powers
  and jurisdictions civil and criminal of justices of the peace. They are
  besides, in conjunction with the respective mayors or recorders, judges of
  the mayor's courts.
       3. Among the Saxons there was an officer called the ealderman.
  ealdorman, or aldernwn, which appellation signified literally elderman. Like
  the Roman senator, he was so called, not on account of his age, but because
  of his wisdom and dignity, non propter oetatem sed propter sapientism et
  dignitatem. He presided with the bishop at the scyregemote, and was, ex
  officio, a member of the witenagemote. At one time he was a military
  officer, but afterwards his office was purely judicial.
       4. There were several kinds of aldermen, as king's aldermen, aldermen
  of all England, aldermen of the county, aldermen of the hundred, &c., to
  denote difference of rank and jurisdiction.
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  ALDERMAN, n.  An ingenious criminal who covers his secret thieving
  with a pretence of open marauding.