Patrimony
//ˈpat.ɹɪ.mə.ni// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A right or estate inherited from one's father; or, in a larger sense, from any male ancestor.
- 2 an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture) wordnet
- 3 Formerly, a church estate or endowment.
- 4 a church endowment wordnet
Example
More examples"Let us make an effort -- in parallel with our efforts to identify ungrammatical English sentences -- not to lose through neglect our patrimony."
Etymology
First attested in 1513. From earlier patrimoyne, from patremoyne, from Middle French patrimoine/patremoine, semi-learned borrowing from Latin patrimōnium, from pater (“father”) + -mōnium (“state, condition”). By surface analysis, patri- + -mony. Compare matrimony.
Related phrases
More for "patrimony"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.