Burghermaster, Bourgermeister, or Burgomaster, the chief magistrate of the great towns in Flanders, Holland, and Germany. The power and jurisdiction of the burgomaster is not the same in all places, every town having its particular customs and regulations: at Amsterdam there are four chosen by the voices of all those people in the senate who have either been burgomasters or chevins. They dispose of all under offices that fall in their time, keep the key of the bank, and enjoy a salary but of 500 guilders; all feasts, public entertainments, &c., being defrayed out of the common treasury. The word is formed from the two Flemish words, borger, burges, or citizen; and meester, maister. Some expel it in Latin by confal, others by senator.—Mr Brenau observes, that burghermaster in Holland, answers to what is called alderman and sheriff in England, attorney at Compiegne, capitoul at Thouleule, confal at Languedoc, &c.