patriarch

The highest form of bishop, in the ancient world having authority over other bishops in the province but now generally as an honorary title; in Roman Catholicism, considered a bishop second only to the Pope in rank.

A male leader of a family, tribe or ethnic group, especially one of the twelve sons of Jacob (considered to have created the twelve tribes of Israel) or (in plural) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Men and brethren / lett me frely ſpeake vnto you of the patriarke David: For he is both deed and buryed / and his ſepulcre remayneth with vs vnto this daye.

A founder of a political or religious movement, an organization or an enterprise.

An old leader of a village or community.

The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently to […] keep in the shade of a large tree; […]

Fictional male antiheroes like television’s crime patriarchs Tony Soprano and Walter White have reigned for some time, but the antiheroine has only more recently had the opportunity to rise up – and become the cause of her own downfall.

The male progenitor of a genetic or tribal line, or of a clan or extended family.