patronus

patronus (plural patronuses)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Patronus.
   • 2017, Luvvie Ajayi, “Know Your Worth”, in Beverly Bond, editor, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth., 37 INK/Atria Books, →ISBN, page 64, column 2:

     Black women are my patronus, and surrounding myself with villages of black women has been my biggest form of self-care.

   • 2017, Susan Dennard, “Acknowledgments”, in Windwitch‎, Tor, published 2018, →ISBN:

     For my dear, dear #Witchlanders, you are my patronus. Real talk here: you are my guardians against the darkness. You’re the reason I keep writing every day, the reason I didn’t give up even when this book almost killed me, the reason I want to tell this story at all.

   • 2020, Bethany C. Morrow, A Song Below Water‎, Tor Teen, published 2021, →ISBN:

     She’s my patronus. When I can’t deal with real life, I escape into her virtual space, where everything is perfectly lit, perfectly coifed, and perfectly accompanied by neo-soul music I never hear anywhere but natural hair videos and the beauty supply shop.

   • 2020, Sanchi, “Sanchi”, in Krittika Pahwa, compiler, The Edge of Seventeen, The Little Booktique Hub, →ISBN, page 44:

     I am 16 years old. My patronus is a unicorn and I literally talk to moon and love the croissant crescent. I love to talk about fireflies, stars and books.

   • 2021, VeeKay, Runa: Fleeting Thoughts Collected‎, →ISBN:

     The screen came alive with a little ‘Hi’ / I knew you were my patronus

   • 2021, Jennie Marts, When a Cowboy Loves a Woman‎, Sourcebooks Casablanca, →ISBN:

     She wore khaki shorts, scuffed hiking boots, and a lavender T-shirt with an open book on the front that read My patronus is a bookworm.

   • 2021 November 26, Kelaine Conochan, “Badwater ultramarathon: What I lost and found during 135 miles of the world's most impossible run”, in ESPN‎, archived from the original on 26 November 2021; published in J.A. Adande, editor, The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2022‎, Triumph Books, 2022, →ISBN:

     Since then, Jimmie joined my relay team, and the rest is history. I’m convinced he’s my patronus. I need his fire, jokes and brotherly love to get across Death Valley.

   • 2022, Alena Rehse, “You Changed Me”, in Turtles & Paperclips: My Thoughts On You, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, section IV (Saving), page 59:

     Falling for you / Did me good / I swear it did // You changed my attitude / My patronus / And my life // You changed me [an illustration of a Patronus-like dog]

patronus

1. conditional of patroni

From pater (“father”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /paˈtroː.nus/, [päˈt̪roːnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /paˈtro.nus/, [päˈt̪rɔːnus]

patrōnus m (genitive patrōnī); second declension

1. a protector, patron

   Exspectō patrōnum.

   I await my protector.

Second-declension noun.

• patrōcinor
• patrōna
• patrōnālis
• patrōnātus

• “patronus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “patronus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• patronus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• patronus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • counsel; advocate: patronus (causae) (De Or. 2. 69)
    
• “patronus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “patronus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin