Theadjective is derived from LateMiddle Englishmaternal,maternall, fromMiddle Frenchmaternel(“maternal”) (modernFrenchmaternel(“maternal; native”)), or from itsetymonLate Latinmāternālis(“maternal”), fromLatinmāternus(“maternal; related to the mother or her side of the family”) +-ālis(suffix formingadjectives of relationship fromnouns).[1][2]Māternus is derived frommāter(“mother”) (ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*méh₂tēr(“mother”)) +-rnus(suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate withItalianmaternale,materno,Portuguesematernal,materno,Spanishmaternal,materno.[1]
Thenoun is derived from the adjective.
maternal (comparativemorematernal,superlativemostmaternal)
- Of or pertaining to amother; having thecharacteristics of a mother;motherly.
- Antonyms:fatherly,paternal
His weakness seemed to bring out hermaternal instincts.
1650,Edward Leigh, “To the Reverend, Pious, and Learned Assembly of Divines, Convened at Westminster: And to All Such as are Studious of Knowledge in the Originall Text of the New Testament. [The Epistle Dedicatory]”, inCritica Sacra in Two Parts: The First Containing Observations on All the Radices, or Primitive Hebrevv Words of the Old Testament, in Order Alphabetical. […] The Second Philologicall and Theologicall Observations upon All the Greek Words of the New Testament, in Order Alphabetical. […], 3rd edition, London: Printed by Abraham Miller and Roger Daniel for Thomas Underhill […],→OCLC:However, the Hebrew (I ſay) is the moſt antient andmaternall Language; forAdam uſed it, and all men before the Flood, as is manifeſt from the Scripture, and Fathers.
1797,[George Chalmers], “§ II.Queen Elizabeth; and Her Letter”, inAn Apology for the Believers in theShakespeare-papers, which were Exhibited in Norfolk-Street, London: Printed forThomas Egerton, […],→OCLC,pages106–107:If a dictionary be aſelection, rather than acollection, of the words in ourmaternall Englyſhe; a dictionary cannot afford a deciſive proof of the non-exiſtence of a word, in ſome other book, which the lexicographer may have never read.
1799 April 15,“P. M.”, “[Untitled letter to the editor]”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym;Edward Cave], editor,The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume LXIX, part I, number IV, London: Printed byJohn Nichols, […];[a]nd sold by Elizabeth Newbery, […], published April 1799,→OCLC,page267:The little blooming foundling was ſoon ordered to be produced before her, which brought the ſympathy of the mother to her eye, and to her heart. The infant had once, at leaſt, amaternal embrace; [...]. With a trulymaternal care the child was placed with wife of one of the domeſticks of the Princeſs, provided with plain neceſſaries, and watched with the eye of humanity and tenderneſs.
1816 July, Hamilton Sydney Beresford, “Mahomet”, inCambridge Prize Poems: Being a Complete Collection of the English Poems which have Obtained the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in theUniversity of Cambridge, London: Printed for T. and J. Allman, […]; and sold by Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, […]; J. Deighton and Sons, […]; and J. Parker, […], published1818,→OCLC,page81, lines79–82:Thus lonely left, no softmaternal breast / His murmurs soothed, or cradled him to rest; / Moist with delight, nomaternal eye / Watched his weak limbs their early efforts try, [...]
1972, Elaine Noirot, “The Onset of Maternal Behavior in Rats, Hamsters, and Mice: A Selective Review”, inDaniel S. Lehrman,Robert A[ubrey] Hinde, Evelyn Shaw, editors,Advances in the Study of Behavior, volume 4, New York, N.Y., London:Academic Press,→ISBN, section II (Sensitization or Priming),page108:Naïve parturient females [i.e., those that have never encountered young animals except for their own litter-mates], unlike most other naïve animals, display immediatematernal behavior as soon as they give birth, except for some rare infanticidal or indifferent mothers.[…] This difference between the behavior of naïve mothers and naïve animals other than mothers suggests that gestation and parturition favor a very rapid establishment ofmaternal behavior.
1992, Barbara Luke, “Influence of Maternal Smoking on the Course and Outcome of Pregnancy”, in Louis Keith, editor,Principles and Practice of Maternal Nutrition, Carnforth, Lancashire, Park Ridge, N.J.: Parthenon Publishing Group,→ISBN,page65:Maternal smoking during pregnancy is one of the modifiable environmental factors that adversely affects the unborn child. [...] Many studies support the view thatmaternal smoking retards fetal growth: infants of smokers tend to be 150–325 g lighter at birth than those born to non-smokers.
1998, C. Horlow, C. Raquin, “A Critical Analysis of Existing Haploidization Techniques”, in Y[ves] Chupeau,M[ichel] Caboche, Y[ves] Henry, editors,Androgenesis and Haploid Plants: […] In Memory of Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Berlin, Heidelberg:Springer-Verlag,→ISBN,page14:In potato, crosses between the tetraploid cultivated speciesSolanum tuberosum, and some clones of the diploid wild-type speciesS. phureja, constitute a method of producingmaternal dihaploids.
2004, Daphne de Marneffe, “The ‘Problem’ of Maternal Desire”, inMaternal Desire: On Children, Love, and the Inner Life, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.:Little, Brown and Company,→ISBN:Maternal desire is at once obvious and invisible partly because it is so easily confused with other things. Those fighting for women's progress too often misconstrue it as a throwback or excuse, a self-curtailment of potential. Those who champion women'smaternal role too often define it narrowly in the context of service—to one's child, husband, or God.
- Related through the mother, or herside of thefamily.
- Antonym:paternal
Toby is mymaternal uncle.
1808 April, “Biography. Sketch of Rev. Dr. MacWhorter.”, inThe Panoplist; or, The Christian’s Armory, volume III, number 11 (number 35 overall), Boston, Mass.: Printed by Lincoln & Edmands, […];[s]old by Caleb Bingham, […],→OCLC,page481, column 1:Doctor[Alexander] MacWhorter was of Scotch extraction. Hismaternal ancestors were among the first emigrants from Scotland to the North of Ireland; and the family of his father removed to the same country about the time of his father's birth.
1895,Frederick Pollock,Frederic William Maitland, “Inheritance”, inThe History of English Law before the Time ofEdward I, volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At theUniversity Press; Boston, Mass.:Little, Brown, & Company,→OCLC, § 1 (Antiquities),page239:It was so in the England ofAlfred's day; thematernal kinsfolk paid a third of thewer [i.e., thewergeld]. TheLeges Henrici, which about such a matter will not be inventing new rules, tell us that the paternal kinsfolk pay and receive two-thirds, thematernal kinsfolk one-third of thewer; and this is borne out by other evidence.
1985, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “The Name ‘Remade’”, in Lydia Cochrane, transl.,Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, paperback edition, Chicago, Ill., London:University of Chicago Press, published1987,→ISBN,page298:While the attribution to the elder children of the given names of paternal grandparents was generally respected, alternation between paternal andmaternal lines was not the rule. The father is more apt to have recourse to relatively distant paternal kin or to his ownmaternal kin than to his own affines. The paternal given names easily supplant thematernal ones.
- (anatomy, medicine)Derived from the mother asopposed to thefoetus duringpregnancy.
- Antonyms:fetal,foetal
1831 November 17,Robert Lee, “III. On the Structure of the Human Placenta, and Its Connexion with the Uterus.”, inPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, part I, London: Printed byRichard Taylor […], published1832,→OCLC,page63:The facts which have now been stated warrant, I think, the conclusion, that the human placenta does not consist of two parts,maternal and fœtal, that no cells exist in its substance, and that there is no communication between the uterus and the placenta by large arteries and veins.
1991, Barbara Abrams, “Maternal Undernutrition and Reproductive Performance”, in Frank Falkner, editor,Infant and Child Nutrition Worldwide: Issues and Perspectives, Boca Raton, Fla.:CRC Press,→ISBN,page33:Undernutrition occurs when dietary intake cannot meet nutritional requirements. The synthesis ofmaternal and fetal tissue or breast milk, and the associated costs ofmaternal maintenance increase nutrient requirements during pregnancy and lactation.
2009, Ronald J. Wapner, Thomas M. Jenkins, Nahla Khalek, “Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Disorders”, in Robert K. Creasy, Robert Resnick, Jay D. Iams, Charles J. Lockwood, Thomas R. Moore, editors,Creasy and Resnicks Maternal–Fetal Medicine: Principles and Practice, 6th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.:SaundersElsevier,→ISBN,pages253–254:Chorionic villus samples typically contain a mixture of placental villi and maternally derived decidua. Although specimens are thoroughly washed and inspected under a microscope after collection, somematernal cells may remain and grow in the culture. As a result, two cell lines, one fetal and the othermaternal, may be identified. In other cases, thematernal cell line may completely overgrow the culture, thereby leading to diagnostic errors, including incorrect sex determination, and potentially to false-negative diagnoses, although there are no published reports of the latter.
2010, Florence L. Marlow, “Dorsal–Ventral Axis Formation before Zygotic Genome Activation in Zebrafish and Frogs”, in Daniel Kessler, editor,Maternal Control of Development in Vertebrates: My Mother Made Me Do It! (Colloquium Series in Developmental Biology),[San Rafael, Calif.]: Morgan & Claypool Life Sciences,→DOI,→ISBN,→ISSN,page105:While the animal–vegetal axis is patterned exclusively bymaternal factors, the later developing dorsal–ventral axis depends on formation of the animal–vegetal axis and requires bothmaternal and zygotic contributions in zebrafish and frogs.
of or pertaining to a mother
- Arabic:أُمِّيّ(ʔummiyy),أُمُومِيّ(ʔumūmiyy)
- Armenian:մայրական (hy)(mayrakan)
- Belarusian:мацяры́нскі(macjarýnski),ма́тчынскі(mátčynski)
- Bulgarian:ма́йчински(májčinski),ма́йчин(májčin)
- Catalan:maternal (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:母親的 /母亲的 (zh)(mǔqīn de)
- Czech:mateřský (cs)
- Dutch:moederlijk (nl)
- Estonian:emalik,emapoolne
- Finnish:äidillinen (fi)
- French:maternel (fr)
- Galician:maternal,materno (gl)
- German:mütterlich (de)
- Greek:μητρικός (el)(mitrikós)
- Hebrew:אִמָּהִי(imahi)
- Hungarian:anyai (hu)
- Italian:materno (it)
- Japanese:母性 (ja)(ぼせい, bosei)
- Latin:māternālis,māternus
- Lithuanian:motiniškas
- Macedonian:мајчински(majčinski)
- Persian:مادرانه (fa)(mâdarâne)
- Polish:macierzyński (pl),matczyny (pl)
- Portuguese:maternal (pt)
- Romanian:matern (ro)
- Russian:матери́нский (ru)(materínskij)
- Scottish Gaelic:màthaireil
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic:ма̀те̄ри́њӣ m,ма̏терӣнскӣ m
- Roman:màtērinjī (sh) m,mȁterīnskī (sh) m
- Slovak:materský
- Slovene:materinski,materin
- Spanish:maternal (es),materno (es)
- Tajik:модарона (tg)(modarona)
- Ukrainian:матери́нський(materýnsʹkyj),ма́терній(máternij)
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related through the mother, or her side of the family
derived from the mother as opposed to the foetus during pregnancy
Translations to be checked
maternal (pluralmaternals)(rare)
- (dated, informal) Amother.
1865 January, “‘Which is the Winner?’ By Charles Clarke, Author of ‘Charlie Thornhill’[book review]”, inBaily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume IX, number59, London: A. H. Baily & Co., […],→OCLC,page146:In the necessarily brief space allotted to a review in these pages it would be impossible to sketch out the story at any length. Suffice it that there are two fathers, two sons and two daughters; thematernals, for once, go for little, but there is an Aunt Philly—a conception, that starts out in the intense reality of existence.
1868, Orpheus C. Kerr [pseudonym;Robert Henry Newell], “Letter III”, inSmoked Glass, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] W. Carleton, publisher; London:S[ampson] Low, Son, & Co.,→OCLC,page53:[...] I would especially bring to your attention the manifest propriety of discountenancing any familiarity from your mothers when in society. If obliged to go with your tiresomematernals to any social gathering, you may reclaim your freedom immediately upon entering the room by slipping abstractedly away in the direction of the piano, and from thenceforth being artlessly forgetful of all messages forwarded to you, and miraculously blind to all beckonings and elevation of fans.
1868 March, “[The Editor’s Repository.] Witty and Wise.”, inI[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor,The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXVII, Cincinnati, Oh.: Poe & Hitchcock; […],→OCLC,page181, column 2:A little girl of this city, who is acknowledged by all to be pretty smart, was holding a very animated conversation with one of about her own years, a few days since. [...] After naming over various meritorious acts of which theirmaternals were capable, the one in question put an end to the dispute by exclaiming, "Well, there's one thing my mother can do that yours can't—my mother can take every one of her teeth out at once."
- Apersonrelated through the mother, or herside of thefamily; a maternalrelative.
1826 January,John Haywood, Judge of theTennessee Supreme Court, “Jane C. Butlerv. James M. King”, in George S. Yerger,William Frierson Cooper, editors,Tennessee Reports. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, new edition, volume II, St. Louis, Mo.: G. I. Jones and Company, published1876,→OCLC,page109:Divide what? The estate that came from the father to the son. Amongst whom? The paternal brothers. If it means, that paternals andmaternals shall now divide, as paternals formerly did, the whole sentence operates nothing; for without, the half blood on both sides, would have taken. But say it establishes a well-known standard to divide by, and that this standard excludes thematernals, then every word, as well as this word "only," has a material effect and energy.
1869, Neil B[enjamin] E[dmonstone] Baillie, “Of Inheritance by ‘Nusub’ or Consanguinity”, inA Digest of Moohummudan Law on the Subjects to which It is Usually Applied by British Courts of Justice in India. Compiled and Translated from Authorities in the Original Arabic, part 2nd (Containing the Doctrine of the Imameea Code of Jurisprudence […]), London:Smith Elder and Co., […],→OCLC,page286:If there are both paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, thematernals take a third, even if there is only one of them, and whether male or female, and the paternals two-thirds, even though there is only one of them, and whether male or female. If thematernals are of one kind, a male has the portion of two females.
maternal m orf (masculine and feminine pluralmaternals)
- Synonym ofmatern
FromEnglishmaternal, from LateMiddle Englishmaternal,maternall, fromMiddle Frenchmaternel(“maternal”) (modernFrenchmaternel(“maternal; native”)), or from itsetymonLate Latinmāternālis(“maternal”).
- IPA(key): [matərˈnal]
- Hyphenation:ma‧ter‧nal
matêrnal
- maternal
maternal m orf (pluralmaternais)
- maternal(of or relating to mothers)
- Synonym:materno
maternal m (pluralmaternais)
- a school for young children
Borrowed fromFrenchmaternel. Bysurface analysis,matern +-al.
maternal m orn (feminine singularmaternală,masculine pluralmaternali,feminine and neuter pluralmaternale)
- maternal
- IPA(key): /mateɾˈnal/[ma.t̪eɾˈnal]
- Rhymes:-al
- Syllabification:ma‧ter‧nal
maternal m orf (masculine and feminine pluralmaternales)
- maternal
- Synonym:materno
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2001.