maternal: [15] Maternal and maternity [17] are the central English representatives of the Romance-language branch of the great Indo- European ‘mother’ word-family. Both go back to Latin māter ‘mother’ (source of French mère and Italian and Spanish madre), whose derived adjective māternus reached English via Old French maternel. Other English words that come ultimately from māter include material and matter, matrix [16] (from which also come madrigal and matriculate [16], etymologically ‘enter on a matrix or list’), and matrimony [14]. => mother
maternal (adj.)
late 15c., from Old French maternel (14c.), from Vulgar Latin *maternalis, from Latin maternus "maternal, of a mother," from mater "mother" (see mother (n.1)).
实用例句
1. I didn't have as strong a maternal instinct as some other mothers.
