sb. and a.; also 6–7 agnat, 7 agnet. [a. Fr. agnat, ad. L. agnāt-us (adgnāt-us, adnātus) a relation by the father’s side; prop. born to, added by birth, pa. pple. of adgnā-sc-i, f. ad to + gnā-sc-i to be born, f. stem gen- to beget. Another form of the word differently used is ADNATE.]
A. sb.
1. A kinsman by the father’s side; a collateral descendant by male links from the same male ancestor.
1534. in Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 117. Thay cannot have ony agnat or kinnisman of the father’s side.
1607–40. Roxb. Bal. (1871), I. 449. It never shall make me looke otherwise than an agnet.
1671. True Non-Conf., 455. The King of Navarre, to whom, as nearest agnat, the Regencie belonged.
1840. Blackw. Mag., XLVIII. 143. Cognates or agnates—affinity or consanguinity—all varieties came alike to them.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, I. 156. By agnates are to be understood persons who are of kin through males.
2. A relation by descent from a common male ancestor, even though female links have intervened.
1868. Chambers, Encycl., I. 76. Agnates, in the law both of England and Scotland, are persons related through the father, as cognates are persons related through the mother…. The intervention of females is immaterial, provided the connection be on the male or paternal side of the house.
B. adj. [After the use of L. agnāt-us, which was properly adj.]
1. Related by the father’s side; also, sprung from the same forefather, of the same clan or nation.
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., ix. 199. The Agnate descendants of Shem.
2. fig. Allied in kind, akin; partaking of the same nature.
1782. Pownall, Study Antiq., 168 (T.). By a fair reciprocal analysis of the agnate words.
1828. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), 342. Persons who are elevated to high rank … assume more or less of a fictitious character, but congenial and agnate, if I may say it, with the former.
