Pl. eupatrids; also (sense 1 a) in Lat. form eupatridæ. [ad. Gr. εὐπατρίδ-ης person of noble ancestry f. εὐ- (see EU-) + πατήρ father.]
1. a. One of the hereditary aristocracy of Athens; a member of the first of the three orders in the early Athenian constitution. b. Hence (rarely) gen. One who is of noble descent, a ‘patrician.’
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 41. It [the Four Hundred] was a popular body, as compared with an assembly of the eupatrids.
1838. F. A. P[aley], trans. Schömann’s Assemb. Athen., 342. Clisthenes … abolished the ancient division of tribes, as the most effectual means of reducing the power of the Eupatridæ.
1862. F. Hall, in Jrnl. As. Soc. Bengal, 205. Amushyáyana, ‘son of somebody,’ an hidalgo, a eupatrid.
1863. Lytton, in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 290/1. The Greek eupatrid or the Roman patrician, who had to court the votes of his phyle, or of his clients.
1864. R. F. Burton, Dahome, I. 251. The big eupatrid is of somewhat offensive presence.
2. attrib. (quasi-adj.)
1833. J. Kenrick, in Philolog. Museum, ii. 363. A proof of Athenian blood and citizenship, not of Ionian and eupatrid extraction.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. x. III. 107. This eupatrid oligarchy and severe legislation.
1866. Felton, Anc. & Mod. Gr., I. xi. 206. He [Æschylus] belonged to a distinguished eupatrid family probably descended from Codrus.
