Peerage

Definition: Peerage

Peerage

Noun

1. The peers of a kingdom considered as a group.

Date "peerage" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1663. (references)

Note: Peerage \Peer"age\, noun. [See Peer an equal, and compare to Parage.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Peerage

Synonym: baronage (n). (additional references)

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Specialty Definition: Peerage

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The peerage is a system of titles of honour unique to Britain, and is one part of the British honours system. Peers were, historically, title holders entitled to be summoned to the House of Lords. The families of title-holders are not peers (though the wives of peers are traditionally known as peeresses). This is a fundamental distinction from the Continental system of titles, where families rather than individuals are ennobled (see nobleman), and where more than one person can hold the same title simultaneously.

Titles

The titles within the peerage are, in ascending order of rank, baron (baroness for women), viscount (viscountess), earl (countess), marquess (marchioness), and duke (duchess). The particular titles take the form of "Rank Name" or "Rank (of) Name", depending on whether the title is the name of a place or is a surname, and also depending on the rank:

Dukes: "Of" is always used: The Duke of Somerset.
Marquesses: If the title is a place name, as it is in almost all cases, "of" is used: The Marquess of Salisbury. If the title is a surname, "of" is not used: The Marquess Camden.
Earls: If the title is a place name, as it is in most cases, "of" is used: The Earl of Derby. If the title is a surname, "of" is not used: The Earl Jellicoe.
Viscounts: If the Viscounty is in the peerage of Scotland, "of" is used: The Viscount of Falkland. Otherwise, "of" is not used: The Viscount Hereford.
Barons: "Of" is never used: The Baron Furnival.

For some titles of Earls, Viscounts, or Barons, the main title is a surname, but a territorial addition is made: The Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, The Viscount Leathers of Purfleet, or The Baron Waldegrave of Chewton. While at one time it was true that a peer with an associated place name actually administered that place, this has largely not been true since the Middle Ages, and the associated place is not necessarily even ruled by the United Kingdom: note the example of the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. For example, the only duke in the British Isles who has an associated duchy is the Duke of Cornwall.

The children of peers are given courtesy titles. The eldest son of a duke, marquess, or earl is called by the highest of his father's subsidiary titles. For instance, the eldest son of the Duke of Wellington is styled Marquess Douro, although this title is actually held by his father. If more than one subsidiary title is held, the eldest son's eldest son can also use a courtesy title. For instance, Lord Douro's eldest son is called Earl of Mornington. Other children of peers also receive courtesy titles. The younger sons of dukes and marquesses (or courtesy marquesses) are called "Lord Forename Surname", while the daughters of dukes, marquesses, and earls (or courtesy marquesses and earls) are styled "Lady Forename Surname". Younger sons of earls, and all children of viscounts and barons bear "the Honourable" before their name. If an unmarried daughter of a peer marries another peer, then she loses her courtesy title, and gains whatever title she would have as a wife of a peer. If she marries a commoner, though, she retains her courtesy title, but she substitutes her new surname for her maiden name.

In conversation, Dukes and Duchesses are referred to as "the Duke/Duchess of N", while those bearing other titles, whether by courtesy or not, are called "Lord/Lady N".

Inheritance of Titles

The mode of inheritance of a peerage, except in the case of life peerages, title is determined by the method of its creation. The most common means is through succession by heirs male of the first title holder, but some peerages, including many Scottish ones, allow passage through the female line. In any case, only descendants of the original title holder may inherit. A peer can hold several different titles simultaneously. If a peer holds two titles of different ranks, then the higher title is used when addressing him.

A title becomes extinct when all possible heirs (the descendants of the original holder) have died out. A title becomes dormant if it is unknown who the current holder, if any, should be. A title comes into abeyance if there is more than one person equally qualified to be the holder, as in certain older English peerages where older and younger daughters are equally qualified to succeed in the absence of a male heir. The Dukedoms of Cumberland and Albany have been suspended since 1919 due to their holders' service in the German army during the First World War. In the past, peerages were sometimes forfeit due to the treason of their holder. A title held by someone who becomes monarch is said to merge in the crown: the title ceases to exist until regranted, for the king or queen cannot be a peer, which connotes equality, rather than superiority, to the other peers. The Dukedom of Cornwall is a special case, which when not in use is said to lapse to the crown: it is construed as existing, but held by no one, in such periods. It is also special in that it is not directly inherited; it always belongs to the eldest son of the monarch as heir apparent. The heir apparent uses the title of Duke of Cornwall until he is created Prince of Wales, which occurs after the Prince has become an adult.

In 1963 the law was changed by the Peerage Act to permit hereditary peers to disclaim their peerages for life. This was notably used by a number of peers who wished to become members of the British House of Commons, including the Viscount Stansgate (Tony Benn), the Earl of Home (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) and the Viscount Hailsham (Quintin Hogg). The latter two later returned to the Lords as life peers. The heir to a disclaimed peerage is entitled to inherit it on the death of the person who disclaimed it. Because Ireland had ceased to be a part of the United Kingdom in 1922, Irish peerages were not included in the law, and thus cannot be disclaimed.

In recent years, almost all peerage creations have been life peerages. Life peers (always barons or baronesses) are treated in every way like an ordinary peer, save that they cannot pass on their title to their heirs. In 1999 the House of Lords was reformed, so as to remove most of the hereditary peers. Since then, it has been composed of the life peers, the holders of particular hereditary offices of state (the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain), and about ninety hereditary peers elected by their colleagues to temporarily continue in office.

Divisions of the Peerage

There are several distinct groupings of peerages within Britain: the peerage of England pertains to all titles created by the Kings and Queens of England prior to the Act of Union in 1707. The peerage of Scotland, similarly, pertains to all titles created by the Kings and Queens of Scotland before 1707. The Peerage of Ireland includes titles created for the Kingdom of Ireland before 1801, and some titles created after that year, while the peerage of Great Britain pertains to titles created for the Kingdom of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. Finally, the peerage of the United Kingdom pertains to most titles created since 1801. Of these, all were entitled to sit in the House of Lords except for the peers of Ireland and Scotland, who elected some of their number to go to the Lords. Irish peers ceased to hold such a right when the Irish Free State was formed in 1922. The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords. However, due to the reforms of the House of Lords Act 1999, only life peers and a number of hereditary peers elected by their counterparts can sit in the House of Lords.

In terms of precedence, all Dukes rank before all Marquesses, and so forth. Within each rank, the order of precedence is: Peerage of England (by seniority of title), Peerage of Scotland (by seniority of title), Peerage of Great Britain (by seniority of title), Peerage of Ireland prior to 1801 (by seniority of title), Peerage of the United Kingdom or Ireland after 1801 (by seniority of title).

Not all British titles are peerage titles: knights and baronets are not by virtue of those titles peers, nor are princes or princesses (unless they have also been granted a peerage title, as royal princes usually are).

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Peerage."

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Synonyms within Context: Peerage

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Nobility	Peer, peerage; house of lords, house of peers; lords, lords temporal and spiritual; noblesse; noble, nobleman; lord, lordling; grandee, magnifico, hidalgo; daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku; don, donship; aristocrat, swell, three-tailed bashaw; gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Peerage

English words defined with "peerage": coroneted ♦ Earl Marshal ♦ highborn ♦ lords temporal ♦ peer, Peerdom ♦ titled. (references)

Specialty definitions using "peerage": Fontarabia ♦ Peerage of the Apostles. (references)

Etymologies containing "peerage": Parage. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Peerage

Domain	Title
Books	Aristocratic Century : The Peerage of Eighteenth-Century England (reference) British Aristocracy & Peerage Bill of 1719 (reference) Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (2 Volume Set) [BOX SET] (reference) Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom/13 Volumes Bound in 6 Books (reference) Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2000: Comprises Information Concerning the Royal Family, the Peerage and Baronetage (Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage, 2000) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Use in Literature: Peerage

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Hence his peerage.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Peerage

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Brunei Darussalam	The Sultan can award to commoners the title Pehin, the equivalent of a life peerage awarded in the United Kingdom. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Peerage

"Peerage" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.55% of the time. "Peerage" is used about 116 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	96.55%	112	30,646
Noun (proper)	3.45%	4	175,879
Total	100.00%	116	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Peerage

Expressions using "peerage": be given a peerage ♦ raise to the peerage ♦ the peerage. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "peerage": life-peerage, non-peerage.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Peerage

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
burkes peerage	45
peerage	29
complete peerage	10
british peerage	8
debretts peerage	5
peerage sale	5
english peerage	5
irish peerage	4
ireland peerage	3
member peerage	3
peerage title	3
irish peerage royalty	3
american peerage	2
brass peerage	2
burks peerage	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Peerage

Language		Translations for "peerage"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		titull i perit, fisnikët e vendit. (various references)

Arabic		‏كتاب يشتمل على أسماء النبلاء, ‏مقام النبيل, ‏طبقة النبلاء (nobility), ‏رتبة النبيل. (various references)

Bulgarian		звание на пер, аристокрация (aristocracy, nobility, quality), благородници, перове. (various references)

Czech		pairství, hodnost šlechtice. (various references)

Finnish		aatelisto (nobility, the peerage). (various references)

French		pairie, nobiliaire. (various references)

German		peerswürde, adelsstand (aristocracy, nobility), adel (aristocracy, nobility, nobleness, title). (various references)

Greek		ευγενείσ (gentlefolk, nobility, noblemen). (various references)

Hebrew		מעמ�" �"אצילים (aristocracy). (various references)

Hungarian		nemesség (nobility, nobleness, persons of title), nemesi almanach (peerage-book), nemesi évkönyv (peerage-book), lordok házának tagjai, főrendi méltóság, főrendi cím, főrendek, főnemesség (aristocracy), főnemesi cím, főnemesek (persons of title), arisztokrácia (aristocracy). (various references)

Italian		titolo di pari, dignit� di pari. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		爵位 (court rank). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しゃくい (court rank), えいしゃく. (various references)

Manx		ooashlid (fineness, gentility, illustriousness, nobility, nobleness), chiarnys (domain, domination, dominion, lordship, manor), chiarnyn (lords). (various references)

Pig Latin		eeragepay

Portuguese		rivalizar com (outvie), nobreza (aristocracy, elevation, gentility, grandfather, greatness, knighthood, magnanimity, nobility, nobleness), aristocracia (aristocracy, gentility, nobility, nobleness). (various references)

Romanian		pairi, rangul de pair, nobilime (gentility, gentlefolk, nobility, nobles), aristocraţie (aristocracy, gentlefolk, nobility), almanahul nobilimii. (various references)

Russian		книга пэров, звание пэра. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		plemstvo (aristocracy, gentlefolk, gentlefolks, gentlehood, nobility, nobleness, noblesse). (various references)

Spanish		dignidad de par. (various references)

Swedish		pärsvärdighet, adelskap (baronetcy, knighthood), adelskalender. (various references)

Turkish		asiller (aristocracy, gentlefolks, noblesse, the upper ten), asalet (blue blood, dignity, nobleness, quality). (various references)

Ukranian		стан перів, книга перів, звання пера. (various references)

Vietnamese		h� ng khanh tướng danh sách các khanh tướng, các khanh tướng h� ng quý tộc. (various references)

Welsh		pendefigaeth (aristocracy). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Peerage

Derivations
	Words beginning with "peerage": peerages. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Peerage" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: beerage, Pararge, Penerive, perega, Perga, Pergau, perge, Pernaja, petage, Peterae, Petriaggi, Phenergan, pierogi, Pierrefeu, Powerage, Predrag, Pyegrave, Pyrame, reterrage. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Peerage"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "peerage" (pronounced pi"ruj)
3	-r u j	acreage, cartridge, miscarriage, porridge, storage.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Peerage

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-e-e-g-p-r"
	-2 letters: agree, eager, eagre, gaper, grape, pager, parge, peage, perea, ragee, repeg.
	-3 letters: agee, ager, aper, eger, epee, gape, gear, gree, page, pare, peag, pear, peer, pree, rage, rape, reap.
	-4 letters: age, ape, are, ear, era, ere, erg, gae, gap, gar, gee, par, pea, pee, peg, per, rag, rap, ree, reg, rep.
	-5 letters: ae, ag.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-e-e-g-p-r"
	+1 letter: creepage, peerages.
	+2 letters: creepages, repechage.
	+3 letters: expressage, gamekeeper, gatekeeper, goalkeeper, percentage, repechages.
	+4 letters: expressages, gamekeepers, gatekeepers, goalkeepers, parageneses, percentages, peregrinate, rerepeating, telegraphed, telegrapher.
	+5 letters: cheeseparing, peregrinated, peregrinates, predeceasing, predesignate, telegraphers, telegraphese, telegraphies.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.