BURGERMASTER, Bourgermeister, or Burgemeister, 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 echevins. They dispense 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, burgess or citizen; and meister, master. Some express it in Latin by consul, others by senatus.—Mr. Brenau observes, that burgemeister in Holland, answers to what is called alderman and sheriff in England, attorney at Compeigne, capitoul at Thouloise, consul in Languedoc, &c.