paternal

Meaning

Adjective

• Of or pertaining to one's father, his genes, his relatives, or his side of a family
• Fatherly; behaving as or characteristic of a father.
• Received or inherited from one's father.
• Acting as a father

Related

Opposite words

• maternal – mother

Origin

• From Old French paternal ("of a father") (12c.), a learned borrowing from Vulgar Latin paternālis ("paternal"), from Classical Latin paternus ("of or pertaining to a father, paternal"), from pater.