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filial: msg#00024

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: filial

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The Word of the Day for October 25 is:

filial \FILL-ee-ul\ adjective
*1 : of, relating to, or befitting a son or daughter
2 : having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring

Example sentence:
Martha's acute sense of filial responsibility made her check on her mother
whenever a few days went by without contact.

Did you know?
"Filial" is descended from the Latin "filius," meaning "son," and "filia,"
meaning "daughter," and in English (where it has been used since at least the
14th century) it has always applied to both sexes. At one time, the word
carried the dutiful sense "owed to a parent by a child," typically found in the
then-common phrases "filial respect" and "filial piety." It can now be used
more generally for any emotion or behavior of a child to a parent. You might
suspect that "filia" is also the source of the word "filly," meaning "a young
female horse" or "a young girl," but it isn't. Rather, "filly" is from Old
Norse "fylja."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.







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