paternal

Forms

paternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural paternales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin paternālis (“paternal”), which is formed from paternus (“of a father”) with the suffix -ālis.^[2][3] The Academy's older editions and Wiktionary instead treat it as a Spanish formation from paterno with the suffix -al.^[4][5][1] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of padre.^[6][7] The Latin adjective is formed from pater (“father”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (“father”).^[8][9][1]

Echegaray and Barcia compare Italian paternale, French paternel and Catalan paternal.^[10][11] The DHLF says the French word was formed on the same Latin adjective, like the Medieval Latin word.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the fifth part of Alfonso X's General estoria (before 1284, in a 15th-century copy), in the phrase la paternal çibdat “the city of one's fathers”.^[13] DEMel cites a document of the Huelgas of Burgos dated 1250 with a query.^[14] In texts that survive in manuscripts of their own time it first appears in the works of Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396): amor paternal “fatherly love”, piedat paternal “fatherly pity”.^[13][15] Corominas dates it from Santillana and Alfonso de Palencia, 1438 in the Breve diccionario.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the adjective was used above all of feelings and attitudes, amor paternal, afección paternal.^[13] In the Americas legal documents of the 16th century speak of the poderío paternal, the authority of a father over his children.^[16] Autoridades defined it as what is proper to a father, with quotations such as providencia paternal; from 1817 the Academy added that it is said mostly of what belongs to the mind, and later editions define it as proper to the affection, care or solicitude of a father.^{[17][18][19][5]} The DLE now gives it simply as a synonym of paterno.^[2] The derivative paternalismo is formed from it.^[20]

Timeline

• before 1284 – Alfonso X's General estoria, in a 15th-century copy.^[13]
• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia uses it several times.^[13]
• 1438 – the date Corominas's Breve diccionario gives for the word, which the DCECH finds in Santillana.^[7][6]
• 1570 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico: poderío paternal.^[16]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “fatherly”.^[21]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from paterno.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. paternal, fatherly: proper to the affection or care of a father: Le habló con un tono paternal.^[5][22][1]
2. Belonging to the father or parents; paterno.^[2][23]

Word family

• paternalismo

Related words

• paterno
• padre
• paternidad
• maternal
• Latin pater

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. paternal
3. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. paternalis
4. ^ 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. 800
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. paternal
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 335
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. padre
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. paternus
10. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 722
11. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 128
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. paternel
13. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. paternal
14. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. paternal
15. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. paternal
16. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. paternal
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 162
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 648
19. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1277
20. ^ 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. paternalismo
21. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 186
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paternal
23. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. paternal