maternal, a. (n.)
(məˈtɜːnəl)
Also 5–7 -all, 6 -ale.
[ad. F. maternel (Oresme, 14th c.), f. L. mātern-us, f. māter mother n.: see -al1. Cf. It. maternale, Sp., Pg. maternal.]
1. Of or pertaining to a mother or mothers; characteristic of mothers or motherhood; motherly.
| 1492 Ryman Poems xviii. 4 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXIX. 187 This mayden..Withouten maternall doloure Oure sauyour hath borne. Ibid. lxxviii. 3 ibid. 248 The whiche thou were worthy to bere Without synne and maternall payne. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Maternall, Motherly. 1654 in Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 121 He told him Regall autority was above maternall and that the King was his soveraigne. 1692 Dryden Eleonora 218 At his first aptness the maternal love Those rudiments of reason did improve. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 64 She had her maternal fears turned into joy. 1790 Cowper On Receipt My Mother's Pict. 27 Ah! that maternal smile! 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xii. 119 The great maternal instinct came crowding up in her soul just then. |
b. (One's) mother's.
| 1605 Timme Quersit. i. xi. 47 The seedes of the elements..are coupled with the seedes of the starres, setting and putting their contayned into the maternall lappe. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. iv, ‘That's exactly what Ma has been doing’, interposed Lavvy, over the maternal shoulder, ‘ever since we got up this morning’. 1894 K. Grahame Pagan P. 106 Oblivious of..the embrace maternal, the paternal smack. |
c. maternal language, maternal tongue: mother tongue, native language. Now rare.
The earliest recorded use both in Fr. and Eng.
| 1481 Caxton Myrr. iii. xxiv. 192, I haue presumed and emprised this forsayd translacion in to our englissh and maternal tongue. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) i. vi. 52 These crysten men ought for to knowe the Pater noster, the Aue maria, and the Credo in theyr langage maternall. 1530 Palsgr. 895 To whom the sayd tonge is maternall or naturall. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 453 In Greeke, Latine, or their maternall tongues. 1858–9 Marsh Eng. Lang. i. (1860) 24 English-speaking missionaries have planted their maternal dialect at scores of important points. |
¶ d. nonce-use. Belonging to one's mother country.
| 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. (1796) i. 138 Heaven..Restored them to maternal plains at last. |
2. Of persons, animals, or personified things: a. That is a mother, or one's mother. Now rare.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xiii. 137 His cheif maternall ciete full of mycht, Aricia, furth sent this worthy knycht [L. insignem quem mater Aricia misit]. 1659 Howell Lex., Brit. Prov. To Rdr., The Cymraecan Toung, which is ranked by all Glottographers among the fourteen Maternall, and independent vernacular Languages of Europe. 1748 Richardson Clarissa IV. 31 But paternal and maternal tyrants are the worst of all. 1873 Sat. Rev. 6 Sept. 309/2 The rooks bereave many a maternal pheasant that haunts the covers commanded by the rookery. |
b. Having the instincts of motherhood, motherly.
| 1784 Cowper Task iii. 436 As if in her [Winter] the stream of mild Maternal nature had reversed its course. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam v. xxxiii. 7 Maternal earth, who doth her sweet smiles shed For all. 1892 G. Atherton Doomswoman ii, She is not maternal..I never saw a baby held so awkwardly. |
c. slang. Used ellipt. as n. = mother.
| 1867 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. Dec. 728 Then is the governor driven to his wits' end.., while the maternal has to rouse herself up out of her arm-chair [etc.]. |
3. Inherited or derived from a mother; related through a mother or on the mother's side.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Maternal..on the mothers side. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 378 The same gradation takes place in the maternal line. 1828 B. B. Wisner Mem. Susan Huntington 1 On the maternal side Mrs. Huntington was descended from..the Rev. John Elliot. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. i. xii, From a maternal relation, Ernest inherited an estate of about four thousand pounds a-year. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes v. I. 49 When he was first brought home a sickly child, consigned to his maternal aunt. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. v. 264 Alongside of him stood his maternal uncle. |
4. Of benevolent organizations: Providing for the requirements of maternity.
| 1856 Kingsley Lect. Ladies 57 There are clubs,—clothing-clubs, shoe-clubs, maternal-clubs. 1890 Century Dict. s.v., Maternal association; maternal hospital. |
5. Phys. Of parts of the placenta: Uterine (opposed to fœtal).
| 1816 J. & C. Bell Anat. & Physiol. Body (ed. 4) III. 465 The maternal part of the placenta is thrown off with the other secundines. 1890 Syd. Soc. Lex., Maternal membranes,..the decidua vera, decidua reflexa, and decidua serotina. |
6. Pertaining to the matrix of algæ.
| 1872 H. C. Wood Fresh-w. Algæ (1874) 100 Numerous cells..are arranged on the periphery at equal distances, and are connected by the maternal jelly. 1874 Ibid. 16 Filaments simple..floating in a maternal jelly. |