Hello folks! I hope you enjoyed last week with your hostesses Donna and Jackie. I had an enjoyable break with most of my family down in the steamy hot state of Jalisco, in the city of Puerto Vallarta. While I was off swimming with sting rays, dolphins, and humpback whales, my mom was at home watching over our dogs. Interestingly, she was one of the only people that sent in a question while I was gone. She asked, “If a mom is maternal, a dad is paternal, and a brother is fraternal—what is a sister?”
I started to think about other Latin words with these prefixes (matricide, patricide, fratricide, homicide, insecticide, suicide—I know, very dark) and took a stab at it based on the word for “sister killing,” which is sororicide. I checked the dictionary for sororal, and indeed this wor means “of, relating to, or characteristic of a sister.” Additionally, Merriam-Webster tells us the suffix “-al” is added to words to mean “of, relating to, or characterized by.”
I’m sure you can think of other words formed by adding this suffix “-al” to mean related to or characterized by something:
· nocturnal (active during the night)
· diurnal (of, related to the daytime)
· floral (related to flowers)
· hierarchical (of, relating to, or arranged in a hierarchy)
· subdural (situated beneath the dura mater [part of brain])
For a huge list of words ending in this suffix, see this Wiktionary article.
Kara Church
Senior Technical Editor
619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773
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