Etymologically
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paternal

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /pəˈtɜː.nəl/[1]
  • US: /pəˈtɜɹ.nəl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paternal, also paternel,[2] borrowed from Old French paternel[3][2] and directly borrowed from Late Latin paternālis (“of or relating to a father”),[3][4][2] from paternus (“of a father, fatherly; on the father's side”),[3][5] from pater (“father”),[3][5][4] with the suffixes -nus and -ālis.[3][6] The Latin adjective is recorded from the 4th century, and often in British sources from about 1250.[3] The American Heritage Dictionary traces pater to Proto-Indo-European *pəter-,[4] the source of father.[5][7] The OED compares paternal, paternal and paternal.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to a father, or to God as the father of mankind: before 1450, in Lydgate's Life of Saints Edmund and Fremund, composed about 1433.[3][2][8] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was used of one's own father (before 1500), and later of anything fatherly in care or authority.[3] Etymonline dates "characteristic of a father" to about 1600.[5] The sense "inherited from a father, related on the father's side" is recorded in 1610, in Guillim's Display of Heraldry,[3] although Barnhart finds it in the adverb paternally by 1603.[8] Fatherly rule was called paternal government,[3][9] which led to paternalism, recorded in American English from 1881.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1450 – of or relating to a father; fatherly.[3][2]
  • before 1500 – belonging to one's own father.[3]
  • 1610 – inherited from or related through a father.[3]
  • 1667 – being a father, in Milton's Paradise Lost.[3]
  • 1881 – the derivative paternalism.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or like a father; fatherly: He took a paternal interest in the young players.[10][4][11]
  2. Received or inherited from one's father: paternal genes.[10][4][11]
  3. Related through one's father: her paternal grandmother.[10][4][11]

Word family

  • paternally
  • nonpaternal
  • paternalism
  • unpaternal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins