Patron

How to spell patron

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce patron

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does patron mean?

1. nounA person who gives financial or influential support to an artist, charity, or institution.
2. nounA regular customer of a shop, pub, restaurant, or other business.

Patron in a sentence

• The gallery thanked its wealthy patron for funding the new wing.

• Every patron of the cafe received a free coffee on its anniversary.

• As a patron of the local theatre, she attended every opening night.

• The landlord knew each patron of the pub by name.

Where does patron come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Patron comes from the Latin patronus, meaning a protector or defender, which was built directly on pater, the Latin word for 'father'. In Roman society a patronus was a man of standing who took clients under his wing, offering legal and financial protection in return for loyalty and service, so the idea of fatherly support sits at the very heart of the word. It passed into English through Old French during the 1300s, at first describing a guardian saint or a person who funded a religious foundation, and later broadening to anyone who sponsors an artist, a charity, or a cause. The commercial sense of a regular customer, someone who 'supports' a shop or pub with their trade, grew naturally from the same notion of patronage. The shared pater root links patron to a surprising family of words including paternal, patriot, and even pattern, and remembering that fatherly core helps fix the single 't' and the plain '-on' ending rather than a doubled letter.

How the word is built

• patr- (from Latin pater: father)
• -on (agent noun ending)