Patrimony

Patrimony may refer to:

• Property or other legal entitlements inherited from (or through), one's father, especially if it has been handed down through generations in the same family, birthright ; see heirloom.
• In civil law systems, the total of all personal and real entitlements, including movable and immovable property, belonging to a real person or a juristic person; in some respects similar to the common-law concept of a person's estate
• Patrimony of affectation, in civil law, a legal entitlement that can be divided for a purpose, as distinct from the general patrimony of the person; in some respects similar to a common-law trust
• Family patrimony, a type of civil law patrimony that is created by marriage or civil union, similar to the common-law concept of community property
• National patrimony, the store of wealth or accumulated reserves of a national economy
• Patrimonialism, a form of governance in which all power, both public and private, flows directly from the leader
• Neopatrimonialism, a social system in which patrons use state resources to secure the loyalty of clients in the general population
• The Patrimony of St. Peter, a medieval state in Italy, ruled by the Pope; see Papal States and Patrimonium Sancti Petri
• Patrimony (novel), a 2007 science fiction novel by Alan Dean Foster
• Patrimony: A True Story, a 1991 non-fiction memoir by American novelist Philip Roth
• A qualification for certain awards, honors, or privileges — such as the Freedom of the City of London