paternal

• paternall (obsolete)

From Old French paternal (“of a father”) (12c.), a learned borrowing from Vulgar Latin paternālis (“paternal”), from Classical Latin paternus (“of or pertaining to a father, paternal”), from pater (“father”).

• enPR: pə-tû(r)'nəl, IPA^(key): /pəˈtɜː(ɹ)nəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl

paternal (comparative more paternal, superlative most paternal)

1. Of or pertaining to one's father, his genes, his relatives, or his side of a family.

   paternal grandfather

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Views of Youth and Age”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 93:

     It was with a natural touch of pride that Norbourne Courtenaye paced his paternal hall, while waiting for his uncle, with whom he was going to ride.

2. Fatherly; behaving as or characteristic of a father.
3. Received or inherited from one's father.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Second Epode of Horace”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 477:

     Thus, ere the ſeeds of vice were ſown, / Liv'd men in better ages born, / Who plow'd with oxen of their own / Their ſmall paternal field of corn.

4. Acting as a father.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• maternal – mother

• avuncular – uncle
• maternal – mother
• materteral – aunt

• parental, prenatal

Borrowed from Latin paternālis. Compare the descended term paternel.

paternal m (oblique and nominative feminine singular paternale)

1. paternal

• English: paternal

Borrowed from French paternel. By surface analysis, patern +‎ -al.

paternal m or n (feminine singular paternală, masculine plural paternali, feminine and neuter plural paternale)

1. fatherly

• IPA^(key): /pateɾˈnal/ [pa.t̪eɾˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pa‧ter‧nal

paternal m or f (masculine and feminine plural paternales)

1. paternal, fatherly

• “paternal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28