Definition of Patriarchal

1. Adjective. Characteristic of a form of social organization in which the male is the family head and title is traced through the male line.

Also: Paternal
Similar to: Patriarchic, Patricentric
Antonyms: Matriarchal
Derivative terms: Patriarch, Patriarchy

2. Adjective. Relating to or characteristic of a man who is older or higher in rank.
Partainyms: Patriarch
Derivative terms: Patriarch

Definition of Patriarchal

1. a. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church.

Definition of Patriarchal

1. Adjective. Relating to a system run by males, rather than females. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Patriarchal

1. [adj]

Medical Definition of Patriarchal

1. 1. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church. 2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable. "About whose patriarchal knee Late the little children clung." (Tennyson) 3. Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations. Patriarchal cross, a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. Patriarchal dispensation, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses. Origin: Cf. F. Patriarcal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Patriarchal

patonce
patoot
patootie
patooties
patooty
patr-
patresfamilias
patress
patresses
patri-
patria potestas
patrial
patriality
patrials
patriarch
patriarchal
patriarchal cross
patriarchalism
patriarchally
patriarchate
patriarchates
patriarchdom
patriarchdoms
patriarchial
patriarchic
patriarchically
patriarchies
patriarchism
patriarchisms
patriarchs

Literary usage of Patriarchal

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"A second characteristic of the Patriarchal System is that the family organization ... The patriarchal family, therefore, frequently consisted of hundreds of ..."

2. The Quarterly Review by William Gifford, George Walter Prothero, John Gibson Lockhart, John Murray, Whitwell Elwin, John Taylor Coleridge, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle, William Macpherson, William Smith (1886)
"The Patriarchal Theory. Based on the Papers of the late John Ferguson McLennan. Edited and Completed by Donald McLennan, MA, of the Inner Temple, ..."

3. Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations by David Hartley (1834)
"The many and great Advantages which have accrued to the World from the Patriarchal, Judaical, and Christian Revelations, prove the Divine Authority of the ..."

4. Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations by David Hartley (1834)
"The many and great Advantages which have accrued to the World from the Patriarchal, Judaical, and Christian Revelations, prove the Divine Authority of the ..."

5. Lectures on the Philosophy of History by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, John Sibree (1902)
"But the expansion of the Family to a patriarchal unity carries us beyond the ... A review of the patriarchal condition, in extenso, would lead us to give ..."

6. English Political Philosophy from Hobbes to Maine by William Graham (1899)
"The chief of a tribe, made up ultimately of patriarchal families, is the earliest king. ... Such were the patriarchal chiefs of the Bible, the Arab sheik, ..."

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