Englishry

Eng·lish·ry
E1N1G2L1I1S1H4R1Y4
UK/ˈɪŋ(ɡ)lɪʃɹi/

noun

Those people living in Ireland or in Wales who are of English descent (chiefly with definite article).

First used 15th c.Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounEnglishry pl (plural only)
  1. historicalpluralplural onlyThose people living in Ireland or in Wales who are of English descent (chiefly with definite article).First known use 15th c.

    a general massacre of the Englishry

    1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC
nounEnglishry (countable and uncountable, plural Englishries)

plural Englishries

  1. uncountableEnglishness.First known use 19th c.

    Blue-eyed women he believed there were in Kashmir, but here was the mythical Englishry of fair hair as well.

    1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 50
    2 more examples

    It is these people who, taking with them so much furniture and Englishry of all kinds have set up everywhere communities with names like ‘Little England’, ‘Newest England’, ‘England Again’ which are more English than England ever was.

    1969, Doris Lessing, The Four-Gated City, Flamingo 1993 edition, page 635

    Yes, [Philip] Larkin was an icon of Englishry, and a fine specimen of its complexes and neuroses: not only arrogant and xenophobic hut also inward-looking, frightened, and depressive.

    1993 September 1, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “An Icon of Englishry”, in The Atlantic
  2. historicaluncountablelawThe state or privilege of being an Englishman.First known use 17th c.
  3. countablehistoricalIn medieval Britain, the part of a lordship or other domain inhabited by English people and governed according to English law.

Origin

From English + -ry, in legal senses after Anglo-Norman englescherie, englecherie. Compare Late Latin Anglescheria, Englescheria (“the state of being English”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Englishry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Englishry

MLA

“Englishry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Englishry. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Englishry,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Englishry.

Source: Englishry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.