armiger
(ˈɑːmɪdʒə(r))
[a. L. armiger bearing arms, an armour-bearer; in med.L. a squire.]
An esquire; orig. one who attended a knight to bear his shield, etc.; in later usage, one entitled to bear heraldic arms.
| [1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 10 A Gentleman borne..who writes himselfe Armigero.] 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 111 Carew Reynell, armiger. c 1840 De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. ii. Wks. II. 92 Entitled to proclaim himself an Armiger; which is the newest..mode of saying that one is privileged to bear arms in a sense intelligible only to the Heralds' College. 1869 Blackmore Lorna Doone xiii. 74 He..could buy up half the county armigers. |