The idea of his frivolity had, no doubt, to do with his personal designation, which represented-as yet, for our young woman, a little confusedly-a connection with an historic Patriciate, a class that, in turn, also confusedly, represented an affinity with a social element that she had never heard otherwise described than as "fashion."
"The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2"
Henry James
In the days when every man carried arms and knew how to use them, when the fighting instinct was imbibed with the mother's milk, when every week saw some street brawl, often attended by loss of life, and that by no means always among the most worthless and dissolute of the inhabitants, every dissatisfaction immediately turned itself into an armed revolt, whether it were of the apprentices or the journeymen against the guild-masters, the body of the townsmen against the Patriciate, the town itself against its feudal superior, where it had one, or of the knighthood against the princes.
"German Culture Past and Present"
Ernest Belfort Bax
It was composed in the prison to which Theodoric had consigned the wisest of the old Roman Patriciate; and it is commonly regarded as closing the canon of Roman literature.
"Anglo-Saxon Literature"
John Earle