(n.) The head of a family; in a large sense, the proprietor of an estate; one who is his own master.
Example Sentences:
(1) Heshel Melamed, a stern rabbinical paterfamilias, was his maternal grandfather.
(2) Described by the Swedish author and journalist Göran Rosenberg as a place “where the state assumed the role of a benevolent paterfamilias , trusted with universal welfare”, the concept of “the people’s home” was the ideological property of the social democrats.
(3) The butler, the servants and the grim paterfamilias I could never be.
(4) Twenty years on, Bobby is now the paterfamilias sitting at the head of what is still the billionaire ranch-owners' only dinner table, married not to Pam (who was left terminally ill when the show ended in 1991 and, unless of course the whole thing turns out to be a dream, is now alas no longer with us), but to Ann (played by Brenda Strong , AKA the dead one from Desperate Housewives ).
(5) Condolences: To uTata Mandela’s beloved wife, Graca Machel, his former wife, Winnie Madikizela, the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – and to all the Madibas – we express our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy on the loss of your paterfamilias, your patriarch.