The word "Citizen" is from French, and it's usage as describing a member of a Nation-State began in the late 14th century. As near as I can tell, it was used in the Swiss Charte des prêtres of 1370.
" N'importe qui, étranger ou indigène, hôte ou citoyen d'une ville ou d'un pays, quel que soit son titre, doit pouvoir voyager dans tous nos districts et territoires, et aussi dans ceux des gens qui dépendent de nous, sans danger aucun pour sa personne et ses biens, et nul ne doit l'inquiéter, l'arrêter ou lui causer un dommage."
Which is more or less when the real Swiss confederacy began.
My point here is that the founder's usage of the word did not come from England. They used the word in the meaning used by the Swiss.
“I hate to be dense here, but I don’t grasp where any of that has anything to do with the word “Citizen.””
It has everything to do with the word, Citizen. To make a very long story very short, burgher, burgess, burg, buhr borough, township, city, city, citizenship, and an array of related word forms are closely related to each other in their definitions and usage, despite having etymology derived from Original Teutonic, Old English, Middle English, Old French, Late Latin, Latin, and translation from Greek. It would require a dissertation or a book to flesh out all of the details, which is far beyond the scope of a forum post. Suffice it to observe the varied word forms represent some common elements which were incorporated into the concepts of citizenship established in the United States of America in 1776 and afterwards.
“The word “Citizen” is from French, and it’s usage as describing a member of a Nation-State began in the late 14th century. As near as I can tell, it was used in the Swiss Charte des prêtres of 1370.”
The word, citizens, was already in use in England no later than 1314 with the spelling “citiseins” to describe members of a community. This was preceded by a variety of Anglo-French and Old French spellings: citesain, citesyn, etc. The Anglo-Norman possessions, Angevin Empire, Burgundy, and other French territories using a Northern French dialect used varied spellings going back into the Old French (9th-14th Centuries). Because most official documents were recorded in Late Latin until the emergence of the non-Latin languages in such documentation, the Late Latin and Latin variations of the word “civitas” were used to denote citizens and citizenship alongside the parallel Original Teutonic word, burger, borrowed into a Latin and late Latin form of the word. The origins of all of these related words and word forms tended to focus on membership in communities located in fortress towns, towns, townships, cities, and city states extending back to the city-state of Ancient Athens and earlier.
The word “citizen” was in use in the American colonies along with the establishment of the English and Swedish colonies. See for example the Swedish usage in 1626 and the English usage in 1682:
Charter of Privileges which Gustavus Adolphus Has Graciously Given by Letters Patent to the Newly Established Swedish South Company; June 14, 1626
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/charter_014.asp
Duke of York’s Confirmation to the 24 Proprietors:
14th of March 1682
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nj09.asp
“My point here is that the founder’s usage of the word did not come from England. They used the word in the meaning used by the Swiss.”
The Founders made a revolutionary expansion of the class of citizens, which were quite novel in some respects. However, the more recent example of New Netherlands, New Amsterdam,, and the Dutch Republic were very influential to their thinking. many of the Founders and/or their associates had a Classical education in Latin, Greek, and/or French literature; so they were acquainted with the Greek and Roman concepts and experience with republicanism and democracy, in addition to the works of the Enlightenment scholars. I would have to argue the Founders variously took their inspiration from no one or small group of sources as their sources of inspiration and example. Vattel, on the other hand, did provide an inordinate number of citations in later U.S. case law, so it may be argued his works were of substantial influence in establishing new U.S. standards of citizenship. It may never be possible, however, to attribute the new U.S. standards of citizenship to only Vattel’s works.