proprietary

Meanings

1. Of or relating to property or ownership.
2. Owning something; having ownership.
3. Created or manufactured exclusively by the owner or licensee of intellectual property rights, as with a patent or trade secret.
4. Nonstandard and controlled by one particular organization.
5. Privately owned.
6. Possessive, jealous, or territorial.

1. A proprietor or owner.
2. A body of proprietors, taken collectively.
3. The rights of a proprietor.
4. A monk who had reserved goods and belongings to himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the time of profession.
5. A company doing legitimate business while also serving as a front for espionage.

Etymology

From French propriétaire, from Latin proprietārius. By surface analysis, propriety + -ary. Compare with the Latin proprietas (“property”) and proprius (“ownership”).