metic

American  

[met-ik] / ˈmɛt ɪk /

noun

1. an alien resident of an ancient Greek city who paid a tax for the right to live there.

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metic British  

/ ˈmɛtɪk /

noun

1. (in ancient Greece) an alien having some rights of citizenship in the city in which he lives

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Etymology

Origin of metic

1800–10; < Late Latin metycus, variant of metoecus < Greek métoikos emigrant, equivalent to met- met- + -oikos dwelling

Explanation

In ancient Greece, a metic was someone who relocated from a foreign country to Athens. Though metics had many of the rights of citizens, they held a lower social status. Most metics in ancient Athens were immigrants from nearby cities who had fled persecution or poverty. A small percentage of metics were formerly enslaved people. Despite the fact that metics often gained economic success, their lowly position in society was essentially permanent; the city could grant them citizenship but rarely did. The Greek root of metic is meta, or "change."

Example Sentences

Of the two men, Andre De Shields is a cat of cool gray nattiness and Ken Page is a slithery streetwise shark with a mi metic gift for Waller's gravelly mocking asides.

From Time Magazine Archive

No implication is lost in the metic ulous revival at the Long Wharf Theater, which tenderly evokes the Millers' tribal intimacy.

From Time Magazine Archive

Are you a metic on condition of obeying the laws of the city or doing what you please?

From The Orations of Lysias by Lysias

It is Plato's greatest concession to the metic, as the bestowal of freedom is his greatest concession to the slave.

From Laws by Jowett, Benjamin

If a stranger smite one who is his elder by twenty years or more, he shall be imprisoned for two years, and a metic, in like case, shall suffer three years' imprisonment.

From Laws by Jowett, Benjamin