optimate

A member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome; an aristocrat, a noble.

Noun

  1. A member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome; an aristocrat, a noble.
    • The elaboration of her sateen costume (somewhat dirty and torn now) showed that she was an optimate. - 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon &...
    • Over the same decade, the upper stratum of Visigothic society, the optimates gradually lost their influence. - 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 23:

Origin

From Latin optimātēs, masculine plural form of optimās (“best, noblest”).

Forms

optimates