different between patriarch vs begetter

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin patriarcha; later reinforced by Old French patriarche, from Byzantine Greek ?????????? (patriárkh?s, “the founder of the tribe/family”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (patriá, “generation, ancestry, descent, tribe, family”) + -?????? (-árkh?s, “-arch”), with some senses likely influenced directly by Latin p?ter (“father”) or Ancient Greek ????? (pat?r, “father”). Compare matriarch. Surface analysis patri- +? -arch.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pe?t????k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?pe?t(?)?i??k/

Noun

patriarch (plural patriarchs)

1. (Christianity) The highest form of bishop, in the ancient world having authority over other bishops in the province but now generally as an honorary title; in Roman Catholicism, considered a bishop second only to the Pope in rank. [from 9th c.]
2. In Biblical contexts, a male leader of a family, tribe or ethnic group, especially one of the twelve sons of Jacob (considered to have created the twelve tribes of Israel) or (in plural) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [from 13th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts II:

     Men and brethren, lett me frely speake unto you of the patriarke David: For he is both deed and buryed, and his sepulcre remayneth with us unto this daye.

3. A founder of a political or religious movement, an organization or an enterprise. [from 16th c.]
4. An old leader of a village or community.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, “Rip Van Winkle”:

     The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning to night, just moving sufficiently to […] keep in the shade of a large tree; […]

5. The male progenitor of a genetic or tribal line, or of a clan or extended family.

   Synonyms: ancestor, forebear, forefather

6. The male head of a household or nuclear family.

   Synonyms: highfather, paterfamilias

Antonyms

• matriarch, materfamilias

Translations

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

patriarch m (plural patriarchen, diminutive patriarchje n, feminine matriarch)

1. patriarch

Related terms

English

Etymology

beget +? -er

Noun

begetter (plural begetters)

1. A procreator; one who begets.
   • 1681, John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Dublin, p. 17,^[1]

     Our fond Begetters, who would never die,

     Love but themselves in their posteritie.

   • 1917, Thomas Hardy, “The Pedigree” in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, London: Macmillan, p. 63,^[2]

     It was a mirror now,

     And in it a long perspective I could trace

     Of my begetters, dwindling backward each past each

     All with the family look,

     Whose names had since been inked down in their place

     On the recorder’s book,

     Generation and generation of my mien, and build, and brow.

2. (figuratively) An originator; a creator.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Shake-speares Sonnets, London: Thomas Thorpe, Dedication,^[3]

     To the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets Mr. W. H. all happinesse and that eternitie promised by our ever-living poet wisheth the well-wishing adventurer in setting forth.

   • 1911, Saki, “Tobermory” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, 1912, p. 30,^[4]

     He was neither a wit nor a croquet champion, a hypnotic force nor a begetter of amateur theatricals.

   • 1980, Doris Lessing, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, London: Jonathan Cape, p. 3,^[5]

     Rumours are the begetters of gossip. Even more are they the begetters of song.

   • 2015, Ayaz Amir, “So what else should Christians do?” The News International, 17 March, 2015,^[6]

     As the sponsor and begetter of extremism, it was only the army which could take on religious extremism along the north-western marches and the ‘secular’ brand of terrorism down south in Karachi.

Translations