Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Government by a patriarch or the head of a family, who is both ruler and priest.

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

  • noun Government by a patriarch, or the head of a family.

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

  • noun government by a patriarch

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

patriarch +‎ -ism

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Examples

  • Such government as they have is a blending of a little democracy with strong patriarchism.

    Terry A Tale of the Hill People Charles Goff Thomson

  • It may be true, that the majority of the slave proprietors were humane men; that some of them were even philanthropic in their way, and inclined towards giving to the unholy institution a colour of _patriarchism_.

    The Death Shot A Story Retold Mayne Reid 1850

  • Nandgaon has managed to keep itself free from strife by the simple expedient of cutting off the road that leads to the village and adhering to the benevolent patriarchism wielded by its headman, Gopal Mundkur.

    The Financial Express 2010

  • Balaam, the last representative of patriarchism, was required to curse the Jewish Church, just as it afterwards would not succumb to Christianity without a struggle (Nu

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

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