proprietorially
- adverb
- /prəˌpraɪəˈtɔːriəli/
:
de manera propietaria
- How her small gestures, the way she cleared her throat when she had something to say she was worried would offend you, the way she brushed his shoulders proprietorially when she found dandruff there.
Examples
-
And it crosses my mind, not in a serious way, that he may be part of the society, or may once have been part of it, but now Ricky's cast him off to induct me—yet my eyes flash proprietorially all the same before I rush to catch up with Ricky, crossing the deck for the shack.
Fiction book (2002) -
He put his arm around his wife proprietorially and stood close to her.
Fiction book (1993) -
He put his arm around his wife proprietorially and stood close to her.
-
The lads and the girls all kept their distance, but Vic was holding Stella's hand as they danced, and when the song ended he put an arm around her, casually, almost proprietorially, to make sure that nobody else cut in.
-
How her small gestures, the way she cleared her throat when she had something to say she was worried would offend you, the way she brushed his shoulders proprietorially when she found dandruff there.
Synonyms
1
6.3
Acting as if someone or something belongs to you
1
8.1
In a way that shows only one person or company controls something
Antonyms
How Possessive
Surface Forms
Morphology
proprietorially = proprietorial (transparent) = proprietor + ial + ly
Forming an adverb with '-ly' from the adjective 'proprietorial' is regular and preserves the meaning; 'proprietorial' is itself transparently derived from 'proprietor' + '-ial'.
Etymology
The word proprietorially comes from proprietor and the Latin word proprius, which means 'own', and it shares the same root as property. So to act proprietorially is to behave as if something belongs to you, like placing your hand on a chair to show it is yours.