Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Relation by the father's side only; descent from a common male ancestor and in the male line: distinct from cognation, which includes descent in both the male and the female lines.
  • noun Alliance or relationship generally; descent from a common source.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Civil Law) Consanguinity by a line of males only, as distinguished from cognation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun consanguinity by a line of males only, as distinguished from cognation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun line of descent traced through the paternal side of the family

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin agnatio: compare French agnation.

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Examples

  • The agnates, who were an important class of kinsmen, in the early Roman law were cognates connected through males either by blood relationship or by the artificial tie of agnation.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • Those only were called who were bound in agnation to the deceased through males; hence females beyond sisters were not called.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • This hard rule again the praetors did not leave entirely without correction, though their remedy, which consisted in the admission of such persons, since they were excluded from the rights of agnation, in the rank of cognates, was inadequate.

    The Institutes of Justinian John Baron Moyle 1891

  • When will the laws of heredity, and the by-laws of agnation result in an altruism, where human bloodshed is an unknown horror?

    At the Mercy of Tiberius 1872

  • Each of these is essentially ancestor-worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through family groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict reference to the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as in the latter, it is intimately bound up with the whole organisation of the State.

    Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • Looking at what is happening now in 'ghanistan and Iraq, one might come to question agnation building. ag

    Vail Daily - Top Stories 2009

  • Looking at what is happening now in 'ghanistan and Iraq, one might come to question agnation building. ag

    Vail Daily - Top Stories 2009

  • Looking at what is happening now in 'ghanistan and Iraq, one might come to question agnation building. ag

    Vail Daily - Top Stories 2009

  • Testaments were vitiated in several ways: nullum, void from the beginning, where there was a defect in the institution of the heir or incapacity in the testator; injustum, not legally executed and hence void; ruptum, by revocation or by the agnation of a posthumous child, either natural or civil; irruptum, where the testator had lost the civil status necessary for testation; destitutum, where the heir defaulted because dead or unwilling, or upon failure of the condition; recissum, as the consequence of a legal attack upon an undutiful will.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • We, however, have followed the Twelve Tables in this department of law, and adhered to their principles: and, while we commend the praetors for their sense of equity, we cannot hold that their remedy was adequate; for when the degree of natural relationship was the same, and when the civil title of agnation was conferred by the older law on males and females alike, why should males be allowed to succeed all their agnates, and women (except sisters) be debarred from succeeding any?

    The Institutes of Justinian John Baron Moyle 1891

Comments

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  • The point of royal administration

    Is hoarding the luck of relation,

    So many a fool

    Has ascended to rule

    By primogeniture and agnation.

    August 2, 2015