paterfamilias

American  

[pey-ter-fuh-mil-ee-uhs, pah-, pat-er-] / ˌpeɪ tər fəˈmɪl i əs, ˌpɑ-, ˌpæt ər- /

noun

• paterfamiliases,
  plural
• patresfamilias
  plural

1. the male head of a household or family, usually the father.

2. Roman Law.

   1. the head of the Roman family; a juridical entity who holds the patria potestas.

   2. a person who is not under the patria potestas of another.

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paterfamilias British  

/ ˌpeɪtəfəˈmɪlɪˌæs /

noun

1. the male head of a household

2. Roman law

   1. the head of a household having authority over its members

   2. the parental or other authority of another person

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• paterfamiliar
  adjective
• paterfamiliarly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• paterfamiliases
  plural
• patresfamilias
  plural

Etymology

Origin of paterfamilias

1425–75; late Middle English < Latin: literally, father (i.e., master) of the household, with archaic genitive form familiās of familia; see family

Explanation

A paterfamilias is the male head of a family, clan, or tribe. If you consider your grandfather to be the head of your family, you can call him a paterfamilias. The word paterfamilias comes from ancient Roman law. The word itself is Latin, combining pater, "father," and familias, "family." In other words, he was the father of the family — and in Rome, that meant that he had legal rights to everything the family owned and authority over each of its members. These days, the paterfamilias is more likely to simply preside over family reunions and hold grandchildren on his knee.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paterfamilias paterfamiliases patresfamilias

Pointedly, the credits pay tribute to Tito, who died in 2024, but not to the Jacksons’ paterfamilias.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

Ms. Cheever began to understand that his stories came at least partly from the tension between his private feelings of shame and the effort to maintain his respectability as a literary grandee and paterfamilias.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025

There were meant to be so many rebels that they could be split into 'five families', a label that even one paterfamilias privately lamented "makes us look ridiculous".

From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2023

The current paterfamilias, Michel, who’s in his mid-60s, has been cooking his whole life, and while you could say he makes food, it feels more like an expression of love.

From New York Times ● Nov. 22, 2023

And nor did I mistake for long Pierrot, much shriveled and with a shining pate I wanted to put my hand on, but still twinkly as ever and very much the paterfamilias.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

It is the so-called decent people, the noble paterfamiliases, the irreproachable husbands, the loving brothers.

From Yama: the pit by Bernard Guilbert Guerney

These dreams of bliss, put into facile verse yet adorned with a certain poetic gravity, caused some anxiety among the paterfamiliases.

From The Fourth Estate, vol. 2 by Armando Palacio Vald?s

Jhabvala’s early fiction sauntered into middle-class Hindu households and wryly took the measure of their dramatic capacity: shy newlyweds and demanding mothers-in-law, pompous patresfamilias, feckless sons, and snooping aunties.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 31, 2018

Only Bryce Gill as the good brother and, at times, Philip Goodwin as various patresfamilias rise above the blustery racket that engulfs the rest of the seven-member cast.

From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2011

Isn't it rather the fault of the audience, of your respectable residents, your patresfamilias?

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And what do our patresfamilias, the officials, the wives and daughters, do in such cases?

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Related Words

• elder
• founder
• grandfather
• ruler