parentalis

Forms

parentālis (neuter parentāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin parēns (“parent”) + -ālis.^[2][1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds the adjective from Ovid on, the neuter plural noun parentālia already in Cicero.^[3] Ovid speaks of the parentālēs umbrae, the shades of his dead parents.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Most uses refer to the Parentālia, the February rites for dead parents and kin: Ovid writes of parentālēs diēs left uncelebrated during long wars, and Florus has parentālia fercula.^[2][3][6] Ovid also calls parentālis the yearly fight of the birds that rose from Memnon's pyre, held at his grave in his honour.^[7]

Medieval British sources use it plainly for what belongs to or befits a parent: parental property in Archbishop Peckham's letters of 1284, a line of descent, a parent's love.^[8] A charter refers it to the first parents, Adam and Eve, and the curse that fell on them.^[8] English parental, from the 1620s, comes from it,^[9] as does Italian parentale.^[6]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of his parents' shades and of the days of the Parentalia.^[5][2][4]
• c. 120 AD – Florus speaks of the dishes of the Parentalia.^[2][4]
• 1284 – Archbishop Peckham uses it of parental property.^[8]
• 1620s – English parental is first recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to parents, parental.^[2][5][10]
2. Of the Parentālia, the festival of dead parents and kin.^[2][5][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of the first parents, Adam and Eve.^[8]

Word family

• parentālīcius

Related words

• English parental

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson