patent

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An official right giving an inventor sole control over making and selling an invention for a set period.

   The company holds a patent on the new battery design.

2. 2
   verb

   To obtain a patent for an invention.

   He decided to patent his new device before showing it to investors.

3. 3
   noun

   Shiny, varnished leather used for shoes and accessories.

   She wore black patent shoes to the party.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Patent came through Old French from Latin patens, “lying open,” from the verb patere, “to be open.” It was first used in “letters patent,” an open document issued by a monarch to record a contract or confer a privilege, and it also meant “open to view.” Its use for a licence to manufacture a commodity dates from the late 17th century. Patent as a shiny material is an early 20th-century shortening of patent leather, a term recorded from the late 18th century.

The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either: * a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or * directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin pat…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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