Patronage

Pronunciation

Origin

French patronage

Full definition of patronage

Noun

1. The act of providing approval and support; backing; championship.His vigorous patronage of the conservatives got him in trouble with progressives.
2. Customers collectively; clientele; business.The restaurant had an upper class patronage.
3. A communication that indicates lack of respect by patronizing the recipient; condescension; disdain.
4. (politics) Granting favours or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.
5. Guardianship, as of a saint; tutelary care.
6. The right of nomination to political office.
7. (UK, legal) The right of presentation to church or ecclesiastical benefice; advowson.

Verb

1. (transitive) To support by being a patron of.
• 2003, Hubert Michael Seiwert, Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History, BRILL, ISBN 9789004131460, page 62:Mingdi continued the policy of his father who had patronaged Confucian learning.
• 2004, C.K. Gandhirajan, Organized Crime, APH Publishing Corporation, ISBN 978-81-7648-481-7, page 147:Table 5.4 reveals the role of criminal gangs’ patron under each crime category. From this, we can understand that 74 percent of the mercenaries are patronaged and supported by the politicians either of the ruling or opposition party.
• 2007, Stefaan Fiers and Ineke Secker, “A Career through the Party”, chapter 6 of Maurizio Cotta and Heinrich Best (editors), Democratic Representation in Europe, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-923420-2, page 138:To summarize: a person with a party political background is thus defined as ‘a person that has served in (a) ... and/or (b) a non-elective position inside the party administration of patronaged position in another organisation, i.e. the political functionary’.
2. (transitive) To be a regular customer or client of; to patronize; to patronise; to support; to keep going.
• circa 1880 in The Primary Teacher (magazine), Volume III, Number ??, New-England Publishing Company, page 63:This house is largely patronaged by the professors and students of many of the Educational Institutions of New England and the Middle States; and all perons visiting New York, either for business or pleasure, will find this an excellent place at which to stop.
• 1902 May, in Oregon Poultry Journal, page 27:Mr. F. A. Welch, of the Oak View Poultry Farm, Salem, starts an add with us this issue. ... Our readers will be treated well, if they patronage Mr. Welch.
• 2002, Kevin Fox Gotham, Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-5377-3, page 28:Most public establishments catered to Blacks, and Whites actively patronaged some black-owned businesses (Martin 1982, 6, 9–11; Slingsby 1980, 31–32).----