Etymologically
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maternal

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /məˈtɜːnəl/[1]
  • US: /məˈtɝnəl/[1]

Etymology

It is either borrowed from Middle French maternel or its probable source borrowed from Medieval Latin māternālis,[2][3][4] formed from Latin māternus (“of a mother”) + -ālis;[2][5] Barnhart suggests that māternālis was modelled on mātrōnālis (“befitting a matron”).[6] Māternus is derived from māter (“mother”),[7][8][9][10] which is cognate with English mother.[11][12] The Anglo-Norman maternel is recorded from about 1380,[13] and Middle French maternel from about 1370, at first in a phrase meaning "mother tongue".[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a language, native or first learned, a mother tongue: 1481, in William Caxton's translation of the Mirror of the World.[2][6][14] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century,[7] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "of or relating to a mother, motherly" followed in 1492, in the poems of James Ryman,[2] and became the main one;[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined the word as motherly, befitting or pertaining to a mother.[15] The OED records "belonging to a mother" from 1605 and "related through the mother", as in maternal uncle, from 1650;[2][14] Etymonline dates "inherited or derived from a mother" to the 1650s.[7] In anatomy and medicine it was used from 1691 of what belongs to the mother as opposed to the fetus.[2] "Being a mother" is recorded from 1748, in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa,[2] and "having the instincts of a mother" from 1785, in William Cowper's The Task;[2] Etymonline gives 1784.[7] In British schoolboy slang the maternal meant one's mother from 1867, a use now archaic.[2] The figurative application to a country or river regarded as a mother (a1522, Gavin Douglas) is now rare.[2]

Timeline

  • 1481 – of a language, native.[2][6]
  • 1492 – of or relating to a mother; motherly.[2]
  • a1522 – figurative, of a country or river regarded as a mother.[2]
  • 1650 – related through the mother.[2]
  • 1691 – anatomy and medicine, belonging to the mother rather than the fetus.[2]
  • 1785 – having the instincts of a mother.[2]
  • 1867 – British slang, the maternal, one's mother.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to or typical of a mother; motherly: She felt a maternal concern for the new recruits.
  2. Related through the mother's side of the family: my maternal grandfather.
  3. (medicine) Of or relating to the mother during pregnancy, as distinct from the fetus: maternal health.

Word family

  • maternalism
  • maternally
  • maternalistic
  • nonmaternal
  • unmaternal
  • maternalize

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  14. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.