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Friday July 17, 2009

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paterfamilias [pay-tuhr-fuh-MIL-ee-uhs; pat-uhr-; pah-]

noun

1. The father of the family (tribe) or male head of the household.

• The movie's other wealthy paterfamilias, Al Lolly (John Goodman), who lives in a fancy loft, is also a bully.
  Stephen Holden, "The Swagger of Fathers, The Drift of Children", New York Times, Apr 3, 2009
• And now we have a new monster who abused his daughter for nearly a quarter of a century, traducing the role of the paterfamilias and bringing new dishes of depravity to the table.
  Carol Topolski, "The monster impulse: We cast evildoers such as Fritzl as bogeymen to spare ourselves any moral self-examination", The Guardian, Mar 23, 2009
• "Yet you call yourselves a society for suppressing excrescences! Your president tells me you are at present inquiring for the address of the man who signs himself 'Paterfamilias' in the 'Times'; but the letters from 'A British Matron' are of no account.
  J. M. Barrie Better Dead

Origin of the Word

Paterfamilias, approximately 1430, derives from Latin, literally "master of a house, head of a family," from pater "father" + familias, old genitive of familia "family."