paternal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pa=ter=nal

CIDE DICTIONARY

paternal, a. [L. paternus, fr. pater a father: cf. F. paternel. See Father.].

•  Of or pertaining to a father; fatherly; showing the disposition of a father; guiding or instructing as a father; as, paternal care.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Received or derived from a father; hereditary; as, a paternal estate.  [1913 Webster]

  "Their small paternal field of corn."  [1913 Webster]

Paternal government (Polit. Science), the assumption by the governing power of a quasi-fatherly relation to the people, involving strict and intimate supervision of their business and social concerns, upon the theory that they are incapable of managing their own affairs.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

paternal, adj.
1 of or like or appropriate to a father.
2 fatherly.
3 related through the father.
4 (of a government etc.) limiting freedom and responsibility by well-meant regulations.

Derivative

paternally adv.

Etymology

LL paternalis f. L paternus f. pater father

THESAURUS

paternal

adoring, affectionate, ancestorial, ancestral, concerned, conjugal, demonstrative, devoted, faithful, fatherlike, fatherly, filial, fond, grandfatherly, grandmotherly, grandparental, husbandly, indulgent, kindly, languishing, lovelorn, lovesick, lovesome, loving, maternal, melting, mother, motherlike, motherly, parent, parental, patriarchal, patrilateral, patrilineal, patrilinear, patrimonial, romantic, sentimental, soft, solicitous, tender, uxorious, wifely

ROGET THESAURUS

paternal

Paternity

N paternity, parentage, consanguinity, parent, father, sire, dad, papa, paterfamilias, abba, genitor, progenitor, procreator, ancestor, grandsire, grandfather, great- grandfather, fathership, fatherhood, mabap, house, stem, trunk, tree, stock, stirps, pedigree, lineage, line, family, tribe, sept, race, clan, genealogy, descent, extraction, birth, ancestry, forefathers, forbears, patriarchs, motherhood, maternity, mother, dam, mamma, materfamilias, grandmother, paternal, parental, maternal, family, ancestral, linear, patriarchal, avi numerantur avorum, happy he with such a mother, hombre bueno no le busquen abolengo, philosophia stemma non inspicit.

Benevolence

N benevolence, Christian charity, God's love, God's grace, good will, philanthropy, unselfishness, good nature, good feeling, good wishes, kindness, kindliness, loving-kindness, benignity, brotherly love, charity, humanity, fellow-feeling, sympathy, goodness of heart, warmth of heart, bonhomie, kind-heartedness, amiability, milk of human kindness, tenderness, love, friendship, toleration, consideration, generosity, mercy, charitableness, bounty, almsgiving, good works, beneficence, the luxury of doing good, acts of kindness, a good turn, good offices, kind offices good treatment, kind treatment, good Samaritan, sympathizer, bon enfant, altruist, benevolent, kind, kindly, well-meaning, amiable, obliging, accommodating, indulgent, gracious, complacent, good-humored, warm-hearted, kind-hearted, tender-hearted, large-hearted, broad- hearted, merciful, charitable, beneficent, humane, benignant, bounteous, bountiful, good-natured, well-natured, spleenless, sympathizing, sympathetic, complaisant, well-meant, well-intentioned, fatherly, motherly, brotherly, sisterly, paternal, maternal, fraternal, sororal, friendly, with a good intention, with the best intentions, Int, Godspeed!, much good may it do!, act a charity sometimes, a tender heart, a will inflexible, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, say only good things about the dead, don't speak ill of the dead, kind words are more than coronets, quando amigo pide no hay manana, the social smile, the sympathetic tear.