Paterfamilias

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A man who is the head of a household, family or tribe.
  2. 2
    the male head of family or tribe wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
patriarchpatriarchabbabossbwanachef

Etymology

(c. 1425 to 1475) From late Middle English paterfamilias, from Latin pater familiās. From Latin pater (“father”) + familiās, archaic genitive of familia (“family; household”). Literally, "father of the family" or "father of the household".

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.