Definition of "paterfamilias" []

• A man who is the head of a household or the father of a family. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Who can forgot the precocious language of George Clooney as his mouth spit out the word paterfamilias, so many times that it should have gotten old."
• "Plenty of petty offenders are dipping into the family coffers: the perpetual-invalid daughter who wields guilt to finance a life of leisure; the titled paterfamilias whose lucrative marriage may be either more or less than it seems; the ex-addict heir like "the prodigal son on steroids" who is eager to regain dad's good graces."
• "During his lifetime the paterfamilias was the owner of accessions made by the filius familias."