parental

Forms

parental m or f (masculine and feminine plural parentales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin parentālis (“of or belonging to parents”).^[2][1][3][4] The Latin adjective is formed from parēns (“parent”) with the suffix -ālis.^[1][5] It was used especially of the Parentalia, the Roman festival in honour of dead parents and relatives.^[6][5] The OLD explains the noun as an old aorist participle of pariō (“to give birth to”), and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to produce, beget”).^[7][1]

The same Latin word was taken into Portuguese parental, which Houaiss dates to 1817–1819, and Nascentes calls a learned word.^[8][9] Spanish pariente and parentela come from the same Latin noun.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación (1424), in the Roman sense: funerarias placaçiones parentales “funeral offerings to the dead kin”.^[11] A few years later Villena glosses the word in his translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined it as what belongs to parents and relatives, quoting the honras parentales “funeral rites for one's kin” of Hernández de Velasco's Aeneid;^[12][13] Terreros added that the Roman parentales were festivals held to win the favour of the dead.^[12][13] Cervantes used it as a noun in La Galatea (1585), for the two kinsmen between whom la furiosa discordia broke out.^[11] The Academy marked it as antiquated from 1817 to 1899.^[14][15][16]

In the 20th century the word was revived in the sciences: psychology spoke of the instinto parental “parental instinct” (Argentina, 1946–1974) and genetics of the generación parental “parental generation” of a cross (Spain, 1957–1974).^[11] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary gave it without the old label and with a biological sense, “of one or both progenitors”.^[17][2]

Timeline

• 1424 – first record, in Villena's Tratado de consolación.^[11]
• 1427–1428 – Villena glosses the word in his Aeneid (copy of 1442).^[11]
• 1585 – Cervantes uses parentales as a noun in La Galatea.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as “belonging to parents and relatives”.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy marks it as antiquated.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin parentalis.^[15]
• 1957 – the generación parental of genetics appears in a school textbook.^[11]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary adds the biological sense.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to parents or relatives: La autoridad parental se discutió en el juicio.^[2][4][1]
2. (biology) Of one or both progenitors; also used as a noun.^[2][18]

Related words

• pariente
• parentela
• Latin parēns
• Portuguese parental

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. parental
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. parental
4. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parental
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. parentālis
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. parentālis
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. parēns
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. parental
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. parental
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. parentela
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. parental
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 129
13. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 42
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 640
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 791
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 743
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. parental
18. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. parental