paternal, a.
(pəˈtɜːnəl)
[f. late L. or Com. Rom. type paternāl-is (med.L. 1438 in Du Cange), It. paternale, Sp., Pr. paternal, F. paternel (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. L. patern-us fatherly (f. pater father): see -al1.]
1. a. Of or belonging to a father or to fathers; characteristic of a father; fatherly.
paternal government, government as by a father, paternalism.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear i. i. 115 Heere I disclaime all my Paternall care, Propinquity and property of blood. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 350 The government which this Nation underwent was first paternall. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 353 God..still compassing thee round With goodness and paternal Love. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xliv. IV. 203 The Roman legislators had reposed an unbounded confidence in the sentiments of paternal love. 1843 Miall in Nonconf. III. 744 Report..that our government, grown suddenly paternal, were about to abandon their prosecutions in Ireland. 1885 R. Buchanan Annan Water xix, He kissed her on the forehead with almost paternal gentleness. |
b. Of or belonging to one's father; (one's) father's.
paternal roof, the home of one's father.
| 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 219 Th' Omnific Word..on the Wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode Farr into Chaos. 1828 Carlyle in Edin. Rev. Dec. 293 But now, at this early age, he quits the paternal roof. 1845 J. Porter Thaddeus of Warsaw (new ed.) xliii. 475 Longing earnestly for a temporary sanctuary under his friend's paternal roof. 1861 J. W. Carlyle Let. 22 Sept. (1883) III. 91 If you are returned to ‘the paternal roof’, no need almost of this letter. a 1901 Besant Five Years' Tryst (1902) 46 Throwing himself at the paternal feet. |
c. That is a father.
| 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 750 The Chariot of Paternal Deitie. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece ii. ii. (1715) 185 Cyrus..sacrificeth to Paternal Jupiter. a 1711 Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 432 Paternal God in Filial shines, And in our Bliss with Filial joyns. |
2. Inherited or derived from a father; related through a father or on the father's side.
| 1611 Munday Brief Chron. 240 He affecting his paternall Kingdome forsooke Poland. a 1700 Dryden Horace Ep. ii. 9 Who plow'd with oxen of their own, Their small paternal field of corn. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 176 ¶8, I have a good Fortune, partly paternal, and partly acquired. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. iii. 94 My paternal grandmother..ran away with my paternal grandfather when she was not quite sixteen. |
Hence paˈternally adv.
| 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire ii. (1892) 28 Paternallye descended..of that Ancient Brittishe line. 1817 G. Rose Diaries (1860) I. 17, I am descended paternally from the family of Rose of Kilravoe. 1892 A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus (Ohio) I. 67 The Lenapes..paternally styled the other Algonquins..children or grandchildren. |