- paternity (n.)
- mid-15c., "condition of being a father," from Old French paternité (12c.), from Late Latin paternitatem (nominative paternitas) "fatherly care, fatherhood," from Latin paternus "of a father," from pater (see father (n.)). Originally in the ecclesiastical sense; literal sense first recorded 1580s. Meaning "paternal origin" is from 1868.
