patroonship
English
Etymology
From patroon + -ship. Compare Dutch patroonschap.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /pəˈtɹuːnʃɪp/
Noun
patroonship (countable and uncountable, plural patroonships)
- (US, historical) The position or office of a patroon; landownership (originally of a Dutch colony).
- Washington Irving
- His patroonship of Rensellaerwick lay immediately below Fort Aurania, and extended for several miles on each side of the Hudson, beside embracing the mountainous region of the Helderberg.
- 2003 (revised), Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, HarperCollins 2005, p. 211:
- It was a protest against the patroonship system, which went back to the 1600s when the Dutch ruled New York, a system where […] ‘a few families, intricately intermarried, controlled the destinies of three hundred thousand people and ruled in almost kingly splendor near two million acres of land.’
- Washington Irving
- (US, historical) An estate run by a patroon, or under a similar system. [from 19th c.]