patriciate

Noun

patriciate (plural patriciates)

1. The rank of a patrician
2. The aristocracy or nobility
   • 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...1902, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
3. the non-noble upper class, or the upper bourgeoisie