English Dictionary

fourth estate

名詞

廃用 慣用表現

(obsolete) A hypothetical fourth class of civic subjects, or fourth body (in Britain, after the Crown, and the two Houses of Parliament) which governed legislation.

日本語の意味

（現代ではあまり使用されない意味）英国において、王室（クラウン）と二院制の議会に次ぐ、立法や国家運営に関与するとされる仮説上の『第四の身分』、すなわち市民階級や新聞など、第三勢力としての役割を指す考え方

In 18th-century pamphlets, writers invoked the fourth estate as a hypothetical check on parliamentary power.

18世紀のパンフレットでは、著者たちは議会の権力を抑えるものとして仮想的な第四の身分を持ち出した。

意味（1）

(obsolete) A hypothetical fourth class of civic subjects, or fourth body (in Britain, after the Crown, and the two Houses of Parliament) which governed legislation.

What is more barbarous than to see a nation […] where justice is lawfully denied him, that hath not wherewithall to pay for it; and that this merchandize hath so great credit, that in a politicall government there should be set up a fourth estate [tr. quatriesme estat] of Lawyers, breathsellers and pettifoggers […]

意味（2）

(idiomatic) Journalism or journalists considered as a group; the press.

“Of what profession is Mr. Archer?” “Of the Corporation of the Goosequill—of the Press, my boy,” said Warrington; “of the fourth estate.”