a quality that ennobles, and raises a person possessed of it above the rank of a commoner.

The origin of nobility in Europe is by some referred to the Goths; who, after they had seized a part of Europe, rewarded their captains with titles of honour, to distinguish them from the common people. In Britain the term nobility is restrained to degrees of dignity above knighthood; but everywhere else nobility and gentility are the same. The British nobility consists only of five degrees, viz. that of a duke, marquis, earl or count, viscount, and baron, each of which see under their proper articles.