WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Pa`tri*ar"chal
Part of Speech : a.
Etymology : [Cf. F. patriarcal.]
Definition : 1. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church.

2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable. About whose patriarchal knee Late the little children clung. Tennyson.

3. (Ethnol.)

Defn: Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations. Patriarchal cross (Her.), a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of Cross. -- Patriarchal dispensation, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913