Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a patrimony; inherited from an ancestor or ancestors: as, a patrimonial estate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a patrimony; inherited from ancestors.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to patrimony
  • adjective Legally inherited from one or more ancestors

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective inherited or inheritable by established rules (usually legal rules) of descent

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Instead, it strengthened what he calls "patrimonial capitalism"-a system in which the key determinant of success is how close you are to those in power.

    The New Yorker James Surowiecki 2011

  • HAVING set forth, in the two preceding chapters, the nature of a commonwealth institutive, by the consent of many men together; I come now to speak of dominion, or a body politic by acquisition, which is commonly called a patrimonial kingdom.

    The Elements of Law Natural and Politic 1650

  • (eventually seventeen) were summoned, but for ordinary meetings for the purpose of money levies only those of the so-called patrimonial or old

    History of Holland George Edmundson 1889

  • Claes said Sizarail had taken over a run-down rail network and brought it up to an efficient one, with a contract that should have continued to 2000, with a mandate to improve the network, increase traffic and prepare for a "patrimonial" system.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1997

  • Calasans of CFEMEA said the new law establishes that gender-based violence is a violation of human rights, and makes other forms of violence punishable by prison sentences, such as patrimonial or economic violence, which is the restriction or denial of access to shared or family property.

    IPS Inter Press Service 2009

  • During this same period of Flotilla Face-Offs with the IDF, Pakistan, my nation of matrilineal and patrimonial heritage has witnessed the extraordinary massacre of 120 moderate, pacifist Muslims, followers of the Ahmadiyyah movement that subscribes to peaceful, pluralistic Islam.

    Qanta Ahmed, MD: Israel and the Flotilla: On the Dangers of a Binary View 2010

  • For now there seems to be a wide popular consensus around the shape of the new Sri Lanka: patrimonial, nepotistic, nationalistic and militarized.

    Rajapaksa Makes a Move 2010

  • During this same period of Flotilla Face-Offs with the IDF, Pakistan, my nation of matrilineal and patrimonial heritage has witnessed the extraordinary massacre of 120 moderate, pacifist Muslims, followers of the Ahmadiyyah movement that subscribes to peaceful, pluralistic Islam.

    Qanta Ahmed, MD: Israel and the Flotilla: On the Dangers of a Binary View MD Qanta Ahmed 2010

  • But it is also true that in the social and in the management level (in particular at the patrimonial level), Barcelona has important adjustments where immediate action is needed and this forms part of the base of my electoral program.

    Juan Arango: An Interview With Sandro Rosell (Part One) 2010

  • During this same period of Flotilla Face-Offs with the IDF, Pakistan, my nation of matrilineal and patrimonial heritage has witnessed the extraordinary massacre of 120 moderate, pacifist Muslims, followers of the Ahmadiyyah movement that subscribes to peaceful, pluralistic Islam.

    Qanta Ahmed, MD: Israel and the Flotilla: On the Dangers of a Binary View 2010

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