maternal
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /məˈtɜːnəl/
enpr: mə-tûr'nəl
ipa: /məˈtɝnəl/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
Forms: form: maternals
Etymology: PIE word
 *méh₂tēr
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English maternal, maternall, from Middle French maternel (“maternal”) (modern French maternel (“maternal; native”)), or from its etymon Late Latin māternālis (“maternal”), from Latin māternus (“maternal; related to the mother or her side of the family”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Māternus is derived from māter (“mother”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”)) + -rnus (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Italian maternale, materno, Portuguese maternal, materno, Spanish maternal, materno.
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Senses: examples: text: In the necessarily brief space allotted to a review in these pages it would be impossible to sketch out the story at any length. Suffice it that there are two fathers, two sons and two daughters; the maternals, for once, go for little, but there is an Aunt Philly—a conception, that starts out in the intense reality of existence.
ref: 1865 January, “‘Which is the Winner?’ By Charles Clarke, Author of ‘Charlie Thornhill’ [book review]”, in Baily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume IX, number 59, London: A. H. Baily & Co., […], →OCLC, page 146:
text: [...] I would especially bring to your attention the manifest propriety of discountenancing any familiarity from your mothers when in society. If obliged to go with your tiresome maternals to any social gathering, you may reclaim your freedom immediately upon entering the room by slipping abstractedly away in the direction of the piano, and from thenceforth being artlessly forgetful of all messages forwarded to you, and miraculously blind to all beckonings and elevation of fans.
ref: 1868, Orpheus C. Kerr [pseudonym; Robert Henry Newell], “Letter III”, in Smoked Glass, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] W. Carleton, publisher; London: S[ampson] Low, Son, & Co., →OCLC, page 53:
text: A little girl of this city, who is acknowledged by all to be pretty smart, was holding a very animated conversation with one of about her own years, a few days since. [...] After naming over various meritorious acts of which their maternals were capable, the one in question put an end to the dispute by exclaiming, "Well, there's one thing my mother can do that yours can't—my mother can take every one of her teeth out at once."
ref: 1868 March, “[The Editor’s Repository.] Witty and Wise.”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXVII, Cincinnati, Oh.: Poe & Hitchcock; […], →OCLC, page 181, column 2:
glosses: A mother.
examples: text: Divide what? The estate that came from the father to the son. Amongst whom? The paternal brothers. If it means, that paternals and maternals shall now divide, as paternals formerly did, the whole sentence operates nothing; for without, the half blood on both sides, would have taken. But say it establishes a well-known standard to divide by, and that this standard excludes the maternals, then every word, as well as this word "only," has a material effect and energy.
ref: 1826 January, John Haywood, Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court, “Jane C. Butler v. James M. King”, in George S. Yerger, William Frierson Cooper, editors, Tennessee Reports. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, new edition, volume II, St. Louis, Mo.: G. I. Jones and Company, published 1876, →OCLC, page 109:
text: If there are both paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, the maternals take a third, even if there is only one of them, and whether male or female, and the paternals two-thirds, even though there is only one of them, and whether male or female. If the maternals are of one kind, a male has the portion of two females.
ref: 1869, Neil B[enjamin] E[dmonstone] Baillie, “Of Inheritance by ‘Nusub’ or Consanguinity”, in A Digest of Moohummudan Law on the Subjects to which It is Usually Applied by British Courts of Justice in India. Compiled and Translated from Authorities in the Original Arabic, part 2nd (Containing the Doctrine of the Imameea Code of Jurisprudence […]), London: Smith Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 286:
glosses: A person related through the mother, or her side of the family; a maternal relative.