vernal
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: PIE word
 *wósr̥
From Latin vernālis (“(rare) of or pertaining to spring; vernal”), from vērnus (“of or pertaining to spring; vernal”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship). Vērnus is derived from vēr (“season of spring”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”)) + -nus (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Old French vernal (modern French vernal), Italian vernale (“pertaining to spring; vernal”), Occitan vernal, Portuguese vernal (“pertaining to spring; vernal”), Spanish vernal (“pertaining to spring; vernal”).
Compare typologically German Frühling (< früh), Slovene pomlȃd (< mlȃd).
Inflected forms:
form: more vernal
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most vernal
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: vernall
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Pertaining to or occurring in spring.
pos: adj
tags: formal
literary
examples: For as a vernall Larke, but lately drest / In her first Downe, abandoning her nest, / Stretchest her pinions, her small force assayes / Flutters, and fals before her flight shee raise, [...]
To my requeſt this anſwer ſhe bequeath'd, / Whiles from her lips the vernall Roſes breath'd; [...]
[...] I have in England for ſome years paſt, kept by me an exact table, or Ephemeris both of the Vernall, and Summer Eteſians; but found the VVinds no leſſe Variable in thoſe Months, then at other Seaſons.
Look round: the vernal fields smile with new flowers, / The budding orchard perfumes the soft breeze, / And the green corn waves to the passing gale.
Their [aphids'] punctures of the leaves of peach and nectarine trees in the vernal months; and of cherry, plum, and currant-trees in the summer, produce a swelling and elevation of the cuticle of the leaf on its upper side, and consequent curling of it with its upper surface outwards, which terminates in a destruction of it, [...]
On we went in this way, mile after mile, over hills and through valleys inundated with a frothing, vernal vegetation and filled with the odour of newly watered ferns in a glasshouse.
Something about the hoot of the vessel entering the river, made George Smith shiver. Two weeks of rain storm and hurricane. For three days Miss Martin could not get to work because of flooding in the subway. And suddenly it stopped. Sun up, clear sky, air fresh, all vernal on the first day of May.
A religious problem unexpectedly triggered the invention of modern science. [...] According to the Julian calendar, the first day of spring (the vernal equinox, when the hours of day exactly equaled those of night) should occur around 21 March. By the fifteenth century, the vernal equinox fell in early April. The church feared that this delay jeopardized the sanctity of Easter (which was celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox). The Counter-Reformation papacy, eager to have its structures improved and reformed, called on intellectuals to come up with both an explanation about the Julian calendar's errors and a solution.
gloss: Having characteristics like spring; fresh, young, youthful.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
formal
literary
examples: When after the long vernal day of life, / Enamour'd more, as more remembrance ſwells / With many a proof of recollected love, / Together down they [the seasons] ſink in ſocial ſleep; [...]
Ah me! too ſwiftly fleets our vernal bloom! / Loſt to our wonted friendſhip, loſt to joy! / Soon may thy breaſt the cordial wiſh reſume, / Ere wintry doubt its tender warmth deſtroy.
Art thou a child of tears, / Cradled in care and woe? / And seems it hard thy vernal years / Few vernal joys can shew?
Related words: primavera
ver
vere
vere-time
Derived words: prevernal
sweet vernal grass
vernal-bearded
vernal conjunctivitis
vernal crocus
vernal cyclamen
vernal equinoctial
vernal equinox
vernal gentian
vernal grass
vernality
vernalization
vernalize
vernal keratoconjunctivitis
vernally
vernal orobus
vernal point
vernal pool
vernal sandwort
vernal season
vernal sedge
vernal-seeming
vernal speedwell
vernal squill
vernal stargrass
vernal starwort
vernal-tinctured
Translations: