pater familias Phrase
Meaning:
father of the family
Comment
Or "master of the house". The eldest male in a family, who held patria potestas ("paternal power"). In Roman law, a father had enormous power over his children, wife, and slaves, though these rights dwindled over time. Derived from the phrase pater familias, an Old Latin expression preserving the archaic -as ending for the genitive case.
Word-for-word analysis:
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Vocabulary Groups: Kapitel 95 - Campus B3 , Kapitel 95 - Campus C3
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