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Alderman - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Alderman : (noun)
1: a member of a municipal legislative body (as a city
council); "aldermen usually represent city wards"
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Alderman : \Al"der*man\ ([add]l"d[~e]r*man), n.; pl. Aldermen.
[AS. aldormon, ealdorman; ealdor an elder _ man. See Elder,
n.]
1. A senior or superior; a person of rank or dignity. [Obs.]
Note: The title was applied, among the Anglo-Saxons, to
princes, dukes, earls, senators, and presiding
magistrates; also to archbishops and bishops, implying
superior wisdom or authority. Thus Ethelstan, duke of
the East-Anglians, was called Alderman of all England;
and there were aldermen of cities, counties, and
castles, who had jurisdiction within their respective
districts.
3. One of a board or body of municipal officers next in order
to the mayor and having a legislative function. They may,
in some cases, individually exercise some magisterial and
administrative functions.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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ALDERMAN. An officer, generally appointed or elected in towns corporate, or
cities, possessing various powers in different places.
2. The aldermen of the cities of Pennsylvania, possess all the powers
and jurisdictions civil and criminal of justices of the peace. They are
besides, in conjunction with the respective mayors or recorders, judges of
the mayor's courts.
3. Among the Saxons there was an officer called the ealderman.
ealdorman, or aldernwn, which appellation signified literally elderman. Like
the Roman senator, he was so called, not on account of his age, but because
of his wisdom and dignity, non propter oetatem sed propter sapientism et
dignitatem. He presided with the bishop at the scyregemote, and was, ex
officio, a member of the witenagemote. At one time he was a military
officer, but afterwards his office was purely judicial.
4. There were several kinds of aldermen, as king's aldermen, aldermen
of all England, aldermen of the county, aldermen of the hundred, &c., to
denote difference of rank and jurisdiction.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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