Bürgermeister

See also: bürgermeister and burgermeister

German

Etymology

From Middle High German burgermeister, bürgermeister, alongside the form burgemeister, bürgemeister. The former is equivalent to Bürger (“citizen”) +‎ Meister (“master”), the latter to Burg (“city”) + Meister. It is uncertain which of the two forms is original. Compare Dutch burgemeester (Middle Dutch also with -er-).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈbʏrɡərˌmaɪ̯stər/, [ˈbʏʁ.ɡɐˌmaɪ̯s.tɐ], [ˈbʏɐ̯.ɡɐ-], [-ˌmaɪ̯.stɐ]
IPA^(key): /ˌbʏrɡərˈmaɪ̯stər/ (fairly rare, but common in compounds)
Audio (file)

Noun

Bürgermeister m (strong, genitive Bürgermeisters, plural Bürgermeister, feminine Bürgermeisterin)

mayor (leader of a city, male or unspecified sex)

Declension

Declension of Bürgermeister [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Bürgermeister	die	Bürgermeister
genitive	eines	des	Bürgermeisters	der	Bürgermeister
dative	einem	dem	Bürgermeister	den	Bürgermeistern
accusative	einen	den	Bürgermeister	die	Bürgermeister

Derived terms

Oberbürgermeister
Altbürgermeister (“ex-mayor”)

Descendants

→ Polish: burmistrz