[ad. med.L. compaternitāt-em (F. compaternité), f. compater godfather (f. com- together, with + pater father): cf. PATERNITY.] The relationship that exists between godfathers (or godparents) mutually, or between them and the actual parents of a child.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 357. By the bonde of compaternite and of consecrate fraternite.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1747), 181. Gossipred or Compaternitie, which though by the Canon Law, it be a spirituall affinity, [etc.].
1832. S. R. Maitland, Facts & Doc., 411. They disregard compaternity.
