patrons

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
patron/ˈpeɪtrən/

▶noun

• 1 a person who gives financial or other support to a person, organization, cause, etc.

  ■ a distinguished person who takes an honorary position in a charity.

• 2 a customer of a restaurant, hotel, etc., especially a regular one.

• 3 Brit., chiefly historical a person or institution with the right to grant a benefice to a member of the clergy.

• 4 (in ancient Rome) a patrician in relation to a client.

  ■ the former owner of a freed slave.

– derivatives
patroness noun.

– origin ME: from OFr., from L. patronus ‘protector of clients, defender’, from pater, patr- ‘father’.