filial

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English filial,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin fīliālis (“of a son or daughter”),^[4][5][2][6] which the OED only compares with French.^[4] Several dictionaries bring it also or instead through Old French filial.^{[7][8][9][10]} The Late Latin adjective comes from fīlius (“son”) and fīlia (“daughter”).^[5][8][11] Etymonline says the Latin noun is possibly from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *bheue- (“to be, exist, grow”), but that Watkins finds it more likely assimilated from a form meaning "a suckling", from *dhe(i)- (“to suck, suckle”);^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary also gives the second root.^[7] Weekley and Merriam-Webster connect it with feminine.^[12][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Due from a child to a parent, of sentiments and duty: 1393, in Langland's Piers Plowman (C-text).^[4] Barnhart dates it before 1425, in a version of that poem.^[11] The MED shows that filial is only a manuscript variant there: its base text reads final and another manuscript feyþful, in the line "Ys no final loue with þis folke".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first described what a child owes a parent, and the MED's sense also covers fellow Christians.^[3] From 1558 to 1795 it could also mean what is due to a son or daughter,^[4][9] and a relation or designation characteristic of a child is recorded from 1659.^[4] The sense of being in the relation of a son or daughter is first found in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667),^[4] and Johnson (1755) gave these two meanings, with Sidney's "filial piety" for the first and Milton's "the filial godhead" for the second.^[13] The second sense is now used only figuratively of things, as the offspring of something else,^[4] and in genetics filial marks the generations after the parents, as in first filial generation (F1).^[14][9][7] A noun meaning an offshoot was in use from before 1552 to 1762.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1393 – due from a child to a parent.^[4] Barnhart dates this to before 1425.^[11]
• before 1552 – noun, an offshoot (obsolete by 1762).^[4]
• 1558 – due to a son or daughter (obsolete by 1795).^[4]
• 1659 – of a relation, characteristic of a son or daughter.^[4]
• 1667 – having the relation of a son or daughter, in Milton.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or suited to a son or daughter, especially in relation to the parents: filial devotion.^{[2][14][7][4]}
2. Having or taking on the relation of a child or offspring; of a thing, being the offspring of something else.^[2][7][4]
3. In genetics, of a generation following the parental one: the second filial generation.^[14][7][9]
4. (obsolete, 1558–1795) Due to a son or daughter.^[4][9]

Noun

1. (obsolete, before 1552–1762) An offshoot.^[4][9]

Word family

• filially
• filialness
• nonfilial
• filial generation

Related words

• filiation
• affiliate
• feminine
• female

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins