| 释义 |
‖ paterfamilias|ˌpeɪtə-, ˈpætəfəˈmɪlɪəs|
[L. paterfamiliās the father or head of a household (familiās, archaic genitive of familia).]
1. Rom. Law. The head of a family or household having the authority belonging to that position over the persons composing it; also, a person of either sex and any age who is sui juris and free from parental control.
1850Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. i. 20 The colonies of Roman citizens planted in the provinces..held the position of the son towards the paterfamilias. 1859T. Sanders Justinian (ed. 2) 99 The head was the paterfamilias, a term not expressive of paternity.., but merely signifying a person who was not under the power of another, and who, consequently, might have others under his power. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. xiii. 379 The authority of the Patriarch or Paterfamilias over his family is..the element..out of which all permanent power of man over man has been gradually developed.
2. The (male) head of a family or household.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 170 Paterfamulias, wise and expert of olde. 1609Dekker Gvlls Horne-bk. (1812) 163 It would make the vintners believe you were pater familias, and kept a house. 1688Sir E. Herbert Hales' Case 21 In this Notion the Estate of every Paterfamilias may be said to be pro bono communi of his Family. 1754A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. (1756) II. 188, I am here a Kind of Pater-familias with all my little Brood of Hens and Chickens around me. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers, Letts's Diary (1862) 186 The habit of running up bills with the milliners, and swindling paterfamilias on the house bills. 1891Mrs. J. H. Riddell Mad Tour 69 The inevitable English party.., paterfamilias, materfamilias, and many daughters.
fig.1628Venner Baths of Bathe (1650) 356 The stomach which is, as I may so say, the Paterfamilias of the body. a1677Barrow Serm. (1687) I. xxiv. 326 The..bounty and munificence with which this great paterfamilias hath provided for the necessary sustenance..of his creatures. |