The Collaborative International Dictionary
Patriciate
Patriciate \Pa*tri"ci*ate\, n.
The patrician class; the aristocracy; also, the office of
patriarch.
--Milman.
Wiktionary
patriciate
n. 1 The rank of a patrician 2 The aristocracy or nobility
Usage examples of "patriciate".
They promised each other to find out why, and they never did so, but satisfied themselves by assigning it to the exclusive use of the slim maidens and massive matrons of the old Nuremberg patriciate, whom they imagined trailing their silken splendors under its arch in perpetual procession.