{"id":24280,"date":"2025-10-31T15:15:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24280"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:15:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:15:43","slug":"burgling-burghers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24280","title":{"rendered":"Burgling Burg(h)ers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are the words <strong>(ham)burger<\/strong>, <strong>burgher<\/strong> and <strong>burglar<\/strong> related? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/croydonclicker\/51210856354\/in\/photolist-2m2k2rd-4VN8mn-eArg6-dnhdfq-6ZzyHV-2mcxMJ3-6BHbFG-2neDDph-49C57d-2np9SWi-y4U473-3bZHE-zX5hqP-2gn3CDV-4DEYa9-26jqXNd-2kfUpx3-2ojL92T-2jvc4zi-4DEYc1-LcibMR-2niVc21-9iv69C-2jwuksb-4DEYds-5cNeRF-5cNfw8-2juLSwW-2maZiQD-PeFp29-cTLCR-6ZUV2K-2ojQWiq-2q35eUW-Faxic2-2jS3UUw-23pz4in-2jf2diQ-URXEzM-2juXbWw-2rdbvXe-8sJzvE-2nTrY6Q-2qAgyah-2qAhL6b-5cSymm-gZ8Fgx-2qAca2h-2ojQWiR-2nzrYvD\" title=\"Burghers of Calais\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51210856354_a4eefcd365_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Burghers of Calais\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Burger<\/strong> [\u02c8b\u025c\u02d0(\u0279)\u0261\u0259(\u0279)] is a rebracketing of the word <strong>hamburger<\/strong>, which is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, usually also containing salad vegetables, condiments, or both.<\/li>\n<li>The patty used in such a sandwich.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Hamburger<\/strong> is an abbreviation of <strong>Hamburger sandwich \/ steak<\/strong>, which comes from <strong>Hamburg steak<\/strong>, a patty of ground beef [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/hamburger#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The idea of the <strong>Hamburg steak<\/strong> was brought to America by German immigrants in the 19th century, and is based on similar German dishes such as the <strong>Frikadelle<\/strong>, which have existed since the 17th century. It first appeared on menus in restaurants in New York in 1873. By the the 1930s, Hamburg steaks were being served as parts of sandwiches, and became known as <strong>(ham)burgers<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hamburg_steak\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The name <strong>Hamburg<\/strong> comes from Old High German <em>Hamme<\/em> (bend, angle) and <em>burg<\/em> (castle, city), from Proto-West-Germanic <em>*burg<\/em> (fortification, (fortified) city), from Proto-Germanic <em>*burgz<\/em> (fortification, stronghold, (fortified) city), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*b\u02b0er\u01f5\u02b0-<\/em> (to rise up, to ascend, be elevated, to be up high) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Hamburg#German\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A <strong>burgher<\/strong> [\u02c8b\u025c\u02d0(\u0279)\u0261\u0259(\u0279)] is<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to the middle class.\n<ul>\n<li>A member of the medieval mercantile class.<\/li>\n<li>A citizen of a medieval city.<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>A prosperous member of the community<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Middle English <em>burgher<\/em> (a freeman of a borough, a burgess), likely merged with and reinforced by Middle Dutch <em>burgher<\/em>, from Middle High German <em>burger<\/em>, from Old High German <em>burg\u0101ri<\/em> (inhabitant of a fortress), from <em>burg<\/em> (fortress, citadel), from Proto-West-Germanic <em>*burg<\/em> (fortification, (fortified) city), etc. [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/burgher#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>A <strong>burglar<\/strong> [\u02c8b\u025c\u02d0\u0261l\u0259(\u0279) \/ \u02c8b\u025d\u0261l\u025a] is<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person who breaks in to premises with the intent of committing theft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Medieval Latin <em>burgl\u0101tor<\/em> (a freeman of a borough, a burgess), from <em>burg\u014d<\/em> (to commit burglary), from Latin Latin <em>burgus<\/em> (fortified town), probably from Frankish <em>*burg<\/em> (fortress), from Proto-Germanic <em>*burgz<\/em>  (fortification, stronghold, (fortified) city), etc. It was possibly influence by the Latin word <em>latro<\/em> (thief) and\/or the Old French word <em>burgeor<\/em> (burglar), which comes from Latin [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/burgher#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>So, <strong>burger<\/strong> and <strong>burgher<\/strong> are related, and <strong>burglar<\/strong> is probably related to them.<\/p>\n<p>Other words that share the same roots include: <strong>barrow<\/strong>, <strong>borough<\/strong>, <strong>burrow<\/strong>, <strong>comfort<\/strong>,  <strong>force<\/strong> and <strong>fort<\/strong> in English, <strong>bourgeois<\/strong> in French, <strong>Burg<\/strong> (castle) in German, <strong>burcht<\/strong> (citadel, castle, borough, burrow) in Dutch, <strong>bwrw<\/strong> (to cast, throw, hit, precipiate) and <strong>brenin<\/strong> (king, monarch, sovereign) in Welsh, <strong>forte<\/strong> (fort(ress), strength, talent, strong, stressed) in Italian, <strong>fuerte<\/strong> (strong, loud, hard) in Spanish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/b%CA%B0er%C7%B5%CA%B0-\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are the words (ham)burger, burgher and burglar related? Let&#8217;s find out. Burger [\u02c8b\u025c\u02d0(\u0279)\u0261\u0259(\u0279)] is a rebracketing of the word hamburger, which is: A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, usually also containing salad vegetables, condiments, or both. The patty used in such a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,110,111,116,128,10,302,15,182,26,177,34,178,44,45,202,64,77],"tags":[516,517,519,164,158,518,138,281,163],"class_list":["post-24280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-frankish","category-french","category-german","category-italian","category-language","category-late-latin","category-latin","category-middle-dutch-dietsc-duutsch","category-middle-english","category-middle-high-german","category-old-french","category-old-high-german","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","category-spanish","category-welsh","tag-burger","tag-burgher","tag-burglar","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-hamburg","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24283,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24280\/revisions\/24283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}