The Collaborative International Dictionary
Paternal \Pa*ter"nal\, a. [L. paternus, fr. pater a father: cf. F. paternel. See Father.]
Of or pertaining to a father; fatherly; showing the disposition of a father; guiding or instructing as a father; as, paternal care. ``Under paternal rule.''
--Milton.-
Received or derived from a father; hereditary; as, a paternal estate.
Their small paternal field of corn.
--Dryden.Paternal government (Polit. Science), the assumption by the governing power of a quasi-fatherly relation to the people, involving strict and intimate supervision of their business and social concerns, upon the theory that they are incapable of managing their own afffairs.
Usage examples of "paternal government".
Auguste was lean and powerful, the scanty and meagre food, doled out to him by a paternal government, had increased his muscular strength whilst reducing his fat.
I was despatched accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.