patron
noun
- supporter or customer
- honorary person or organization that supports another organization
- returning customer
- user of library or archive services
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpeɪ.tɹən/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English patroun, patrone, from Old French patron, from Latin patrōnus, derived from pater (“father”). Doublet of padrone, Patronus, patroon, and pattern.
- One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.
“patron of my life and liberty”
“the patron of true holiness”
- One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.
“St. Joseph is the patron of many different places.”
- An influential, wealthy person who supported an artist, craftsman, a scholar or a noble.
- A customer, as of a certain store or restaurant.
“This car park is for patrons only.”
“In our trial of the AOT, a transect was used to collect data about the languages being spoken by patrons of the NIE cafeteria during lunchtimes.”
- A protector of a dependent, especially a master who had freed a slave but still retained some paternal rights.
- One who has gift and disposition of a benefice.
- A padrone.
- A property owner, a landlord, a master. (Compare patroon.)
“Half-a-dozen little boys carried it to the inn, where I had to explain to the patron, in my best Spanish, that we wanted a carriage to go to the baths, seven leagues off.”
“[...] would obtain permission from the West India Company to settle in certain areas in the New World and cultivate the land. Sometimes absentee patrons would give the colony to a group of interested persons and the patrons would finance ...”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English patroun, patrone, from Old French patron, from Latin patrōnus, derived from pater (“father”). Doublet of padrone, Patronus, patroon, and pattern.
- To be a patron of; to patronize; to favour.
“a good cause needs not to be patroned by passion”
- To treat as a patron.