squire|ar|chy

squire|ar|chy «SKWYR ahr kee», noun, plural -chies.

1. the collective body of squires, or landed proprietors; country gentry as a class, regarded especially in respect to political or social influence.

2. a) government dominated by the country gentry, such as generally existed in England from the early 1700's until 1832. b) a country, state, or community having such a government: »

We should never have left home, home being something like an eighteenth-century English squirearchy (Harper's).

╂[< squir(e) + -archy, as in hierarchy]