Citizen

Forms: 4 citisein, -sain, -seyn(e, citesayne, -ceyn, -zeyn, citizein, 4–5 citeseyn, zein(e, 4–6 -sen, 5 cita-, citiesyn, cetisen, cytezane (Sc.), -eyn, -ein, sitesyn, sytizin, (setsayne), 5–6 citesyn, -zen, 6 cytezyn, cityzen, -sen, cittesen, cytiezin, cytyzyn, 7 cittizen, 6– citizen. [ME. citesein, etc., a. Anglo-Fr. citeseyn, -zein, sithezein, altered form of OF. citeain, citehain, citein, citeen, citien, citain, later citeyen, citoyen:—L. type *cīvitātān-um, f. cīvitāt-em city (cf. oppidān-um, villān-um); Romanic type civtatāno, -dano, whence Pr. ciutadan, Sp. ciudadano, Pg. ciudadão; and Pr. ciptadan, It. cittadano, now cittadino, OF. cite(h)ain. The intercalation of s (z) in Anglo-Fr. citesain has not been explained: association with dainzain denizen, which was often an equivalent term, has been suggested.

  The suggestion that z was a mistaken reading of ȝ, meaning y, on the part of a 13th or 14th c. scribe or scribes, is in every respect untenable.]

  1.  An inhabitant of a city or (often) of a town; esp. one possessing civic rights and privileges, a burgess or freeman of a city.

c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (A.), 5503. Þe citiseins of þat cite wel often god þonkeden he.

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 5090. To London … thai come, The citisains fair in hem nome.

1382.  Wyclif, Acts xxi. 39. I am a man … of Tarsus … a citeseyn or burgeys, of a citee not unknown.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 3263 [MS. after 1500]. Sum of the Citizens assemblit with all. Ibid., 11879. Citasyns.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccvi. 187. The cytezeyns of london.

c. 1480.  Pol. Poems (1859), II. 281. He thonckyd the cetisence of thayre fidelité.

1512.  Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 9 § 2. Citezens of Cities and Burgeys of boroughes and Townes.

1556.  Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 16. The kynge [Hen. VI.] came to London, & there was worchippfully reseved of the cittesens in whytt gownes & redde whoddes.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. ii. 95. Pisa renowned for graue Citizens.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1704), III. xv. 472. You, the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, of the House of Commons.

a. 1699.  Lady Halkett, Autobiog. (1875), 20. Furnished by an honest Cittisen.

1782.  Cowper, Gilpin, i. John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 353. The chiefs of the mercantile interest are no longer citizens. They avoid, they almost contemn, municipal honours and duties.

  b.  Used also as feminine. (Cf. CITIZENESS.)

1605.  Lond. Prodigal, III. i. 243. I’ll have thee go like a citizen, in a guarded gown and a French hood.

1655.  trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, VI. 20. She who was the most antient of the two Citizens.

  c.  A townsman, as opposed to a countryman.

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm., Prol. Faustus accused and blamed cytezyns, Amyntas blamed the rurall men agayne.

1845.  Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 209. Both citizens and peasants are tired of it.

1860.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. I. i. 4. The words ‘countryman … villager,’ still signify a rude and untaught person, as opposed to the words ‘townsman’ and ‘citizen.’

  d.  A civilian as distinguished from a soldier; in earlier times also distinguished from a member of the landed nobility or gentry. Johnson says ‘a man of trade, not a gentleman.’

1607.  Shaks., Cor., III. iii. 53. When he speakes not like a Citizen You finde him like a Soldier.

1871.  [see CITIZENHOOD].

  e.  With reference to the ‘heavenly city,’ the New Jerusalem.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8925. Þis ceté of heven … ilka citesayne þat wonned þare.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), I b. Amonge y^e citezyns of heuen.

1665.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. x. (1675), 338. A Citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and but a Stranger and a Sojourner here.

  2.  A member of a state, an enfranchised inhabitant of a country, as opposed to an alien; in U.S., a person, native or naturalized, who has the privilege of voting for public offices, and is entitled to full protection in the exercise of private rights.

138[?].  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 69. [He] clevede to oon of þe citizeins of þat countre.

1538.  Starkey, England, 46. The nombur of cytyzyns, in euery commynalty, Cyty, or cuntrey.

1633.  Massinger, Guardian, V. iv. To save one citizen is a greater prize Than to have killed in war ten enemies.

1752.  Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 281. A too great disproportion among the citizens weakens any state.

a. 1799.  Washington (Webster). If the citizens of the United States should not be free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXVI. 11/1. A pledge, both to American citizens and foreign states.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 79. The object of our laws is to make the citizens as friendly and happy as possible.

1884.  Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/4. A nation where every capable citizen was enfranchised.

Mod.  Arrest of an American citizen.

  b.  as a title, representing Fr. citoyen, which at the Revolution took the place of Monsieur.

1795.  Argus, Dec., 26. Letter from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to Citizen Miot.

1799.  Med. Jrnl., I. 155. He was called to the female citizen [= citoyenne] Dangiviller, whom he found in a miserable situation. Ibid. (1801), V. 359. Such, Citizen Mayor, are the motives of the propositions which the Committee have the honour of laying before you.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. i.

  c.  phr. Citizen of the World: one who is at home, and claims his rights, everywhere; a cosmopolitan; also, Citizen of Nature. (Cf. Cicero De Leg. I. xxiii. 61 civem totius mundi.)

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 31. Helde hym bourgeys and cytezeyn of the world.

1625.  Bacon, Ess. Goodness, etc. (Arb.), 207. If a Man be Gracious, and Courteous to Strangers, it shewes, he is a Citizen of the World.

1760.  Goldsm. (title), The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 148. An original genius, a citizen of nature.

  3.  transf. Inhabitant, occupant, denizen. (Of men, beasts, things personified.)

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, 930 (Fairf. MS.). In this Region certeyn Duelleth many a Citezeyn Of which that seketh Daun Plato These ben eyryssh bestes.

1508.  Fisher, Wks. (1876), 235. Who ben the cytezyns of this regyon, truly none other but deuylles.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 465. His hand…—Rude ram, to batter such an ivory wall!—May feel her heart—poor citizen!—distress’d Wounding itself to death.

1603.  Dekker, Grissil (1841), 5. Let’s ring a hunter’s peal … in the ears Of our swift forest citizens.

c. 1630.  Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, I. xxvi. Wks. (1711), 5. A citizen of Thetis christal floods.

  4.  adj. = CITIZENISH, city-bred. nonce-use.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 8. I am not well: But not so Citizen a wanton, as To seeme to dye, ere sicke.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., chiefly appositive, as citizen-king, -magistrate, -prince, -soldier, -sovereign; also, citizen-life; citizen-like adj.

1830.  Hobhouse, in T. Juste, S. Van de Weyer (1871), App. iii. 268. He [Leopold] may do very well for a *citizen-king.

1851.  Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace (1877), III. IV. xiii. 113. Alf eyes were fixed on the citizen-king [Louis Philippe].

1874.  Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, viii. 254. *Citizen life was too precious to be poured out in wrath.

1598.  Florio, Cittadinesco, *Citizen-like.

1847.  Emerson, Repr. Men, Plato, Wks. (Bohn), I. 303. He [Socrates] affected a good many citizen-like tastes.

1837–9.  Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. iii. § 59. A republican government that was rapidly giving way before the *citizen-prince.

1843.  Prescott, Mexico (1850), II. 310. The *citizen-soldiers of Villa Rica.

  Hence Citizen v., to address as ‘citizen.’

1871.  Daily News, 19 April, 5/5. Now the sentinel ‘citizens’ me and I ‘citizen’ him.