PATRONIZE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PATRONIZEAuthored

The Law Mind • 828 words

Definition

To patronize, in legal usage, means to frequent or make use of an establishment as a customer or client. The term appears most often in criminal and regulatory law, where statutes prohibit patronizing certain illegal businesses—such as prostitution establishments, unlicensed gambling operations, or venues operating in violation of licensing requirements. In this context, "patronizing" means knowingly using the services of or being a customer of the prohibited establishment, regardless of whether the individual participates in its management or operation.

Secondary legal usage: In some older civil and equity contexts, to patronize means to act as a patron—to support, protect, or sponsor another, as in the relationship between a patron and a beneficiary under a grant, license, or ecclesiastical appointment. This usage has largely receded from active legal significance.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To act as a patron; to frequent as a customer; or to treat someone condescendingly.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To act as patron toward; to support or countenance; to trade with customarily; or to assume an air of superiority toward another.

The common and legal meanings overlap significantly in the commercial sense—both treat "patronize" as meaning to frequent a business as a customer. The legal gap worth noting is narrow but important: in criminal statutes, "patronize" carries a mens rea dimension that the common usage lacks. Legal patronizing often requires that the person knew the nature of the establishment, not merely that they visited it. The condescending social meaning of the word has no legal counterpart.

Common Confusion

"Patronize" is occasionally confused with "solicit" in the context of prostitution law. The distinction matters: solicitation typically describes an offer or enticement to engage in a transaction, while patronizing describes the act of being the customer in that transaction. Some jurisdictions use both terms in a single statutory scheme to cover different participants in the same conduct. Researchers should not assume the terms are interchangeable when reviewing criminal codes or case annotations.

Why It Matters in Research

The primary research value of this term lies in criminal and regulatory law, particularly prostitution statutes and vice-related offenses. Many states created distinct "patronizing a prostitute" or "patronizing a person for prostitution" offenses in the late twentieth century, separating customer liability from solicitation or promotion offenses. Researchers working with pre-1970s sources may find the term used almost exclusively in its patron-support sense rather than its criminal-customer sense; the shift in dominant legal usage is significant and can produce misleading results if older annotations are read without that context.

In liquor licensing and regulated industries, "patronize" appears in older case law discussing whether a licensee's customers can be held liable for violations occurring on the premises. The Illinois appellate decision cited in Bouvier—9 Bradwell 344—illustrates early judicial treatment of what it means to "patronize" a house, drawing a line between occupants and customers. Researchers using Bouvier's citation should be aware that it addresses the civil and regulatory meaning, not the criminal-statute meaning that dominates modern usage.

Jurisdictional variation in criminal codes is substantial. Some states use "patronizing" as the operative verb in prostitution offenses; others use "purchasing," "soliciting," or "engaging." Keyword searching on "patronize" alone will miss statutes that criminalize the same conduct under different terminology.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's is the only source in the historical shelf that addresses "patronize" directly and usefully. Its entry is brief but instructive: it defines the term as "to act as patron towards" and immediately flags a judicial limitation—citing the Illinois Appellate Court for the proposition that occupants of a house cannot be said to patronize it. This suggests early courts were already doing work to confine the term's meaning, distinguishing the status of a resident or operator from that of a customer or outside patron. Bouvier also notes the Latin root patronus, connecting the term to the Roman concept of the father-patron, which contextualizes the older legal usage involving support and protection.

Rapalje & Lawrence and Anderson's Dictionary of Law do not contain entries for "patronize." The entries retrieved under that search in those sources are clearly mismatched results (patent writ, mansion-house) and carry no relevance to this term. Researchers should not expect historical dictionary coverage of "patronize" as a legal term of art beyond Bouvier's brief treatment; the term's legal significance developed largely through statutory language rather than common law doctrine, and the historical dictionaries reflect that limitation.

Jurisdictional Note

Criminal liability for patronizing a prostitute is governed by state statute, and the elements, terminology, and penalties vary considerably. New York's Penal Law uses "patronizing a person for prostitution" as a graded offense. Other jurisdictions fold the same conduct into broader solicitation statutes. Researchers working across state lines should check the operative statutory language rather than relying on the term "patronize" as a consistent marker.

PATRONIZEmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

(939) PATENT WRIT.-An open writ; a writ is the father. The Romans forbade a not sealed up or closed. See CLOSE WRITS.

PATRONIZEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

House of refuge. A public institution for the confinement of incorrigible youth. Mansion-house. In the law of burglary, a dwelling-house. If a house, stable, or warehouse be parcel of the mansion-house, and within the same common fence, though not under the same roof or contiguous, a burglary may be committed therein; for the capital house protects and privileges all its branches or appurtenances, if within the curtilage or home-stall. A chamber in a college is the mansion-house of the owner. So also is a room or lodging in any private house the mansion, for the time being, of the lodger, if the owner does not dwell in the house, or if he and the lodger enter by different doors. But a tent or booth is not a mansion-house: the law regards thus highly nothing but permanent edifices. 8 Public-house. (1) "Public" may be applied to a house, either on account of the proprietorship, as, a court-house, which belongs 1 Aaron v. State, 37 Ala. 113 (1861); 21 id. 261; 17 id. 482; 6 Baxt. 522. 23 Steph. Com. 225; 4 Bl. Com. 370, 377. Tomlin; Laws, Prov. of Penn. (1682). 4 State v. Smith, 29 Minn. 195 (1882); 28 Mich. 213; 29 Wis. 435; 38 Tex. 603; 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 1088; 2 Whart. Cr. L. § 1451. 5 Cadwell v. State, 17 Conn. 471 (1846); State v. Main, 31 id. 574 (1863); McAlister v. Clark, 33 id. 92 (1865); State v. Garing, 74 Me. 153 (1882); Commonwealth v. Lavonsair, 132 Mass. 3 (1882). State v. Mullen, 35 Iowa, 207 (1872). Rogers v. People, 9 Col. 452 (1886), Helm, J. 64 Bl. Com. 224-26. To act as a patron toward.1 The patrons of a house of ill-fame cannot be said to be those who are occupied in the house or about the premises. 1

PATRONIZEmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

To act as patron to- wards. The occupants of a house cannot be said to patronize it; 9 Bradw. 344. See 48 Ν. Υ. 472. PATRONUS (Lat.). In Roman Law. A modification of the Latin word pater, father. A denomination applied by Rom- ulus to the first senators of Rome, and which they always afterwards bore. Romulus at first appointed a hundred of them. Seven years afterward, in consequence of the asso- ciation of Tatius to the Romans, a hundred more were appointed, chosen from the Sabines. Tar- quinius Priscus increased the number to three hundred. Those appointed by Romulus and Tatius were called patres majorum gentium, and the others were called patres minorum gentium. These and their descendants constituted the no- bility of Rome. The rest of the people were called plebeians, every one of whom was obliged to choose one of these fathers as his patron. The relation thus constituted involved important consequences. The plebeian, who was called cliens (a client), was obliged to furnish the means of maintenance to his chosen patron, to furnish a portion for his patron's daughters, to ransom him and his sons if captured by an enemy, and pay all sums recovered against him by judgment of the courts. The patron, on the other hand. was obliged to watch over the interests of his client, whether present or absent, to protect his person and property, and especially to defend him in all actions brought against him for any cause. Neither could accuse or bear testimony against the other, or give contrary votes, etc. The contract was of a sacred nature; the violation of it was a sort of treason, and punishable as such. Ac- cording to Cicero (De Repub. ii. 9), this relation formed an integral part of the governmental sys- tem, Et habuit plebem in clientelas principum de- scriptum, which he affirms was eminently useful. Blackstone traces the system of vassalage to this ancient relation of patron and client. It was, in fact, of the same nature as the feudal institutions of the middle ages, designed to maintain order in a rising state by a combination of the opposing in- terests of the aristocracy and of the common people, upon the principle of reciprocal bonds for mutual interests. Ultimately, by force of radical changes in the institution, the word patronus came to signify nothing more than an advocate.

PATRONIZEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To act as patron toward; to support; to countenance; to favor; to aid. The idea has been patronized by two States only. A. Hamilton. To trade with customarily; to frequent as a customer. [Commercial Cant] To assume the air of a patron, or of a superior and protector, toward; -- used in an unfavorable sense; as, to patronize one's equals.

patronizeverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To act as a patron of; to defend, protect, or support. | To make oneself a customer of a business, especially a regular customer. | To assume a tone of unjustified superiority toward; to talk down to, to treat condescendingly. | To blame, to reproach.

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