proprietary

English

Etymology

From French propriétaire, from Latin proprietarius. Compare with the Latin proprietas (“property”), and proprius (“ownership”).

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /pɹəˈpɹɑɪ.ə.teɪɹ.i/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Adjective

proprietary (comparative more proprietary, superlative most proprietary)

  1. Of or relating to property or ownership, as proprietary rights.
  2. Of or relating to the quality of being an owner, as the proprietary class.
  3. Created or manufactured exclusively by the owner of intellectual property rights, as with a patent or trade secret.
    The continuous profitability of the company is based on its many proprietary products.
    • 1996, Michael Craig Budden, Protecting Trade Secrets under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act: Practical Advice for Executives, Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, →ISBN, page 20:
      It was reported that the recipes for the secret sauce and grinder sandwiches were proprietary, known only to the current president of the corporation and the former owner of the restaurant.
  4. Nonstandard and used only by one particular organization, as a proprietary extension to a standard.
  5. Privately owned, as a proprietary lake.
  6. (of a person) Possessive, jealous, or territorial.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Noun

proprietary (plural proprietaries)

  1. A proprietor or owner.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Fuller to this entry?)
  2. A body of proprietors, taken collectively.
  3. A monk who had reserved goods and belongings to himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the time of profession.
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