[W/K] :: proprietary

  Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\, n.; pl. Proprietaries. [L.
     proprietarius: cf. F. propri['e]taire. See Propriety, and
     cf. Proprietor.]
     1. A proprietor or owner; one who has exclusive title to a
        thing; one who possesses, or holds the title to, a thing
        in his own right. --Fuller.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A body proprietors, taken collectively.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Eccl.) A monk who had reserved goods and effects to
        himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the
        time of profession.
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  Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\, a. [L. proprietarius.]
     Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as
     property; owned; as, proprietary medicine.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Proprietary articles, manufactured articles which some
        person or persons have exclusive right to make and sell.
        --U. S. Statutes.
        [1913 Webster]

  proprietary
       adj : protected by trademark or patent or copyright; made or
             produced or distributed by one having exclusive rights;
             "`Tylenol' is a proprietary drug of which
             `acetaminophen' is the generic form" [ant: nonproprietary]
       n : an unincorporated business owned by a single person who is
           responsible for its liabilities and entitled to its
           profits [syn: proprietorship]

  76 Moby Thesaurus words for "proprietary":
     balm, balsam, beneficiary, cestui, cestui que trust,
     cestui que use, deedholder, dominion, dominium, drops, drug,
     electuary, elixir, ethical drug, feoffee, feudatory, generic name,
     herbs, householder, inhalant, laird, land tenure, landed,
     landholding, landlady, landlord, landownership, landowning,
     lincture, linctus, lord, lordship, master, materia medica,
     medicament, medication, medicinal, medicinal herbs, medicine,
     mesne, mesne lord, mistress, mixture, nonprescription drug,
     officinal, overlordship, owner, ownership, patent medicine,
     pharmacon, physic, possession, possessive, possessorship,
     possessory, powder, preparation, prescription drug, propertied,
     property, proprietary medicine, proprietary name, proprietor,
     proprietorship, proprietress, proprietrix, rentier, seigniory,
     simples, sovereignty, squire, syrup, theraputant, tisane,
     titleholder, vegetable remedies
  
  

  proprietary adj. 1. In marketroid-speak, superior; implies a product
     imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the company's
     own hardware or software designers. 2. In the language of hackers and
     users, inferior; implies a product not conforming to open-systems
     standards, and thus one that puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor
     able to gouge freely on service and upgrade charges after the initial
     sale has locked the customer in. Often used in the phrase "proprietary
     crap". 3. Synonym for closed-source, e.g. software issued in binary
     without source and under a restrictive license.
  
     Since the coining of the term open source, many hackers have made a
     conscious effort to distinguish between `proprietary' and `commercial'
     software. It is possible for software to be commercial (that is,
     intended to make a profit for the producers) without being proprietary.
     The reverse is also possible, for example in binary-only freeware.
  
  

  proprietary
       
          1. In marketroid-speak, superior; implies a product imbued
          with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the
          company's own hardware or software designers.
       
          2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior; implies a
          product not conforming to open-systems standards, and thus
          one that puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor who can
          inflate service and upgrade charges after the initial sale has
          locked the customer in.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
       

  PROPRIETARY. In its strict sense, this word signifies one who is master of 
  his actions, and who has the free disposition of his property. During the 
  colonial government of Pennsylvania, William Penn was called the 
  proprietary. 
       2. The domain which William Penn and his family had in the state, was, 
  during the Revolutionary war, divested by the act of June 28, 1779, from 
  that family and vested in the commonwealth for the sum which the latter paid 
  to them of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling.