Dictionary:
dy·nas·ty (dī'nə-stē)  |
[Middle English dynastie, from Old French, from Late Latin dynastīa, lordship, from Greek dunasteia, from dunastēs, lord. See dynast.]
dynastic dy·nas'tic (dī-năs'tĭk) adj.| 5min Related Video: dynasty |
| Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: DYNASTY |
An application development system for enterprise client/server environments from Dynasty Technologies, Inc., Houston, TX www.dynasty.com). Introduced in 1993, it is a repository-driven system that supports Windows, Mac and Motif clients and NT, OS/2 and major Unix servers and databases. It provides partitioning for creating three-tier applications. DYNASTY generates C and SQL code.
Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch
| Archaeology Dictionary: dynasty |
A line of rulers whose right to power is inherited.
| Word Tutor: dynasty |
When the queen's son was crowned king, he became the second ruler in the family dynasty.
| Wikipedia: Dynasty |
A dynasty is a succession of people belonging to the same family, who, through various means and forms maintain power, influence or authority over the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses and imperial dynasties — their authority manifests itself as the sovereign of a state or territory. Usually in much of the world, such dynasties and noble houses are defined patrilineally, with inheritance and kinship being predominantly viewed and legally calculated through descent from a common ancestor in the male line. The female line is normally only considered once the male lineage has died out. Other forms of dynasties include political families in republics and also with the rise of mercantilism prominent business and financial dynasties. These do not carry the public prestige of a monarch but are influential.
A ruler in a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a dynast, but this term is also used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains succession rights to a throne. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a dynastic member of the House of Windsor.
A "dynastic marriage" is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, so that the descendants are eligible to inherit the throne and/or other royal privileges. For instance, the 2002 marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange to Máxima Zorreguieta was dynastic, and their eldest child is expected to eventually inherit the Dutch crown. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support and parliamentary approval. Thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and his children have no dynastic rights.
In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, dynastic describes a family member who would have succession rights if the monarchy's rules were still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Max was bypassed for the Austrian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position.
The term "dynast" is sometimes used to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, and sometimes to those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her late sister, Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown, and in that sense is a British dynast. Yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (born 1954), although a male-line descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, is a remote descendant with no legal British titles and styles (although he is entitled to re-claim the once-royal dukedom of Cumberland). Yet he was born in the line of succession to the British crown and is bound by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained formal permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. But immediately upon marriage he forfeited his right to the British throne because the English Act of Settlement 1701 dictates that dynasts married to a Roman Catholic are considered dead for the purpose of succession. However, the couple's daughter, Princess Alexandra of Hanover (born 1999), remains a legal dynast of both the United Kingdom and Monaco[citation needed] , not to mention her father's claim to dynasticity as pretender to the former royal crown of Hanover.
Royal Families
Business Houses
Political Dynasties in the Republic
The crown of the Kingdom of England and Ireland merged with that of the Kingdom of Scotland to form a personal union between England-Ireland and Scotland (the former a personal union itself)
Though in elected governments rule does not pass automatically by inheritance, political power often accrues to generations of related individuals even in Republics. Eminence, Influence, familiarity, tradition, genetics, and even nepotism may contribute to this phenomenon.
Family dictatorships are a slightly different concept, where political power passes within a family due to the overwhelming authority of the leader, rather than informal power accrued to the family.
Some political dynasties:
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Dynasty |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - dynasti, fyrstehus
Français (French)
n. - dynastie
Deutsch (German)
n. - Dynastie, Herrschergeschlecht, Herrscherhaus
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δυναστεία
Português (Portuguese)
n. - dinastia (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - dinastía
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - dynasti
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
朝代, 王朝
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 朝代, 王朝
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) سلاله حاكمه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - שושלת מלכים
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
To select your translation preferences click here.
| Shopping: dynasty |
 | napoleonist |
| Liao (Chinese dynasty) |
| dynastic |
 | Which dynasty reigned after the Tudor dynasty? Read answer... |
| What dynasty ruled after the Han dynasty? Read answer... |
| What dynasty came after the ming dynasty? Read answer... |
 | The shang dynasty came after which dynasty? |
| Gupta dynasty suceeded by which dynasty? |
| What was the next dynasty after xia dynasty? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. THIS COPYRIGHTED DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher. © 1981-2009 Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dynasty". Read more |
 |
| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
Mentioned in
