Citizen: 1. A legally recognized subject ornational of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized. 2. An inhabitant of a particular town or city.
Denizen: 1. An inhabitant or occupant of a particular place.
Same thing?
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Related: Difference in use of “denizens” versus “residents”– Mari-Lou AApr 22, 2018 at 14:07
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6 Answers
I would say the answer depends on how technical we're being.
A citizen of the United States is a legal resident who has been processed by the government as being a member of the United States.
A denizen of the United States is simply someone that lives there.
Technically speaking, one could never be, for example, a citizen of the Earth -- but we're all denizens of the Earth.
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2Sure you could be a citizen of the Earth. We just need to get around to forming a one world government first. Dec 12, 2015 at 19:02
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I can think of three types of use where denizen works, and citizen doesn't.
- For a much smaller area, especially one not defined by government: "Truman Capote was a long-time denizen of Manhattan's social scene."
- For animals: "Rodents Of Unusual Size, like other Fire Swamp denizens, are rarely seen by humans."
- With a derogatory connotation: "Dick Armey, like other K Street denizens, likes few things more than tax cuts for billionaires."
"Citizen" means a person who is not just present in a city or other conurbation, but at least potential part of its social body.
"Denizen" is a much more general word which is not limited to humans, and not limited to civilised or organised places. It often has a connotation of wildness.
answered Jul 8, 2011 at 14:51
This is fine distinction, and may have a lot to do with what time frame one is working in, and the legal ramifications of the term. a monarch could confer denizenship on a foreign person, with all the rights of natural born citizen, but the monarch could also revoke it. Someone who was naturalized was considered a natural born citizen with all the privileges that entailed. A fine hair to split, to be sure.
"Denizen" is preferable to a sentient nonpartisan observer in self-description. The legal term "citizen" makes the claimant liable for the actions of corporate Person/actors.
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1What have "corporate persons" got to do with a simple choice between two words? Jul 8, 2014 at 16:43
I disagree with this answer:
'A citizen of the United States is a legal resident who has been processed by the government as being a member of the United States.'
A denizen is simply one who resides in a location.
A subject is one who has been declared a member of a nation by a Ruler or State.
A citizen is one who has declared himself a member of a nation.
Citizenship arises from the individual alone. A state cannot grant or deny citizenship. Only an individual can do this.
I cite Ramsay's 1789 Dissertation on Citizenship.
Edit Jan 31,2018
I double down:
A CITIZEN is a FREE MAN;
one who has CHOSEN;
CONSENTED to support a GOVERNMENT.
One who has a natural law OBLIGATION
to RENOUNCE support and obedience
to any social contract, with said institution,
which denies the INALIENABLE RIGHTS of another FREE MAN.
I add two citations:
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
“Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his CONSENT.
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke:
"Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own CONSENT."
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A person cannot simply declare themselves to be a citizen of a state, just because they are currently residing there.– Simon BNov 28, 2014 at 21:59
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"Speaking generally, we may say that the terms subject and citizen are synonymous. Subjects and citizens are alike those whose relation to the state is personal and not merely territorial, permanent and not merely temporary. This equivalent, however, is not absolute. For in the first place, the term subject is commonly limited to monarchical forms of government, while the term citizen is more specially applicable in the case of republics. Mar 15, 2015 at 4:13
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A British subject becomes by naturalisation a citizen of the United States of America or of France. In the second place, the term citizen brings into prominence the rights and privileges of the status, rather than its correlative obligations, while the reverse is the case with the term subject. Finally it is to be noticed that the term subject is capable of a different and wider application, in which it includes all members of the body politic, whether they are citizens (i.e., subjects stricto sensu) or resident aliens. Mar 15, 2015 at 4:13
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All such persons are subjects, all being subject to the power of the state and to its jurisdiction, and as owing to it, at least temporarily, fidelity and obedience." John Salmond, Jurisprudence 133 (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947). Mar 15, 2015 at 4:13