Dictionary entry

Porphyrogenitism

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Por′phy‐ro‐gen″i‐tism (?), n. [LL. porphyro genitus, fr. Gr. �; � purple + root of γίγνεσθαι to be born.] The principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was not so born. Sir T. Palgrave.