- Anthropology. of or relating to the authority exercised by a father or a father's blood relatives.
Origin of patripotestal
1905–10; patri- + potestal
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for patripotestal
This is known as the matripotestal, as contrasted with the patripotestal, type of family.
For our present purpose, all turns on the distinction between the matripotestal and the patripotestal family.