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maternal

ma·ter·nal

UK/məˈtɜːnəl/ US/məˈtɝnəl/ fairly common informal

adjective

1.

characteristic of a mother

  • “warm maternal affection for her guest” Dorothy Sayers
Antonyms
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2.

relating to or derived from one''s mother

  • “maternal genes”
3.

relating to or characteristic of or befitting a parent

  • “parental guidance”
Synonyms
Antonyms
4.

related on the mother''s side

  • “my maternal grandmother”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

PIE word *méh₂tēr The adjective is derived from Late Middle English maternal, maternall, from Middle French maternel (“maternal”) (modern French maternel (“maternal; native”)), or from its etymon Late Latin māternālis (“maternal”), from Latin māternus (“maternal; related to the mother or her side of the family”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Māternus is derived from māter (“mother”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”)) + -rnus (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Italian maternale, materno, Portuguese maternal, materno, Spanish maternal, materno. The noun is derived from the adjective.

Phrases

  • direct maternal death
  • indirect maternal death
  • maternal aunt
  • maternal cousin
  • maternal custody
  • maternal death
  • maternal effect
  • maternal grandchild

Related words

Word family

See also

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.