Appendix:English collateral adjectives

A collateral adjective is an adjective that is identified with a noun but not derived from it. For example, the word bovine is considered the adjectival equivalent of the word cow, but is derived from the Latin word for cow. In some cases both the noun and the adjective are borrowed, but from different languages, such as air (French) and aerial (Latin). The term collateral refers to these two sides in the relationship.

Collateral adjectives are sometimes called suppletive adjectives or irregular adjectives because there are so few truly suppletive or irregular adjectives in English.

(Examples of truly suppletive adjectives are the comparative forms good–better, bad–worse, many/much–more, few–less, and the ordinal numbers one–first and two–second. Examples of truly irregular adjectives are the comparative/superlative forms better–best, worse–worst, more–most, less–least, far–farther/further–farthest/furthest, and the ordinals three–third, five–fifth.)

Many collateral adjectives enter the language because English regularly substitutes attributive use of the noun itself (or of a verbal noun from a related verb) for use of an adjective, so true adjectives are often missing. Adjectives are then borrowed from Greek or Latin for technical and academic usage, where true adjectives are preferred over attributive use of nouns. Because of this, collateral adjectives tend to be more technical or academic in tone than their corresponding nouns.

Some collateral adjectives have a related noun which may be a near synonym for the noun in question. For example, one adjective for business is commercial, which also has a cognate noun commerce. Because there is no one-to-one correspondence between adjective and noun in English, and there is no regular derivation that they upset, they are not actually suppletive.

Some nouns have both collateral and derived adjectives. For example, for the noun father there is derived fatherly alongside collateral paternal, and for day there is daily alongside diurnal. Note that while fatherly and paternal are near synonyms, daily and diurnal are not. In many such cases where the collateral and derived adjectives are synonyms or near synonyms, the derived adjective is the word in everyday use, while the collateral one is either technical or used for effect.

Collateral adjectives may be distantly cognate with the noun. In the cases "cow – bovine" and "father – paternal", for example, the Latin roots "bov-" and "pater-" are related to English words "cow" and "father" through Proto-Indo-European. In the case of "air – aerial", the French word "air" came from the Latin root "aer", and this is the root of "aerial", "aeronautics", and "aerodynamics".

In other cases, the adjective might have been regularly derived from the noun in another language, and then both words were borrowed separately into English.

See also:

• Appendix:Animals lists many animal collateral adjectives.

A – B – C - D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – W – X – Y – Z

In the following, in everyday English speech or writing, a derived adjective that is much more likely to be used than any of the collateral alternatives is presented in square brackets.

A

• abdomen (belly) – ventral, alvine, abdominal
• abdominal cavity – coeliac/celiac, visceral
• actor, acting – histrionic (more commonly means overly theatrical, applied not just to actors), thespian (often facetious), [actorly]
• adjective – epithetic, adjectival
• aesthetic pleasure – sensuous
• aging, the aged – geriatric, gerontic
• agouti – dasyproctid, dasyproctine
• agriculture – geoponic, georgic(al), agricultural
• air – pneumatic, aerial
• airtight – hermetic
• alphabet – abecedarian, alphabetic
• amber – succinic
• animal – zoic, zoological
• ankle bone – astragalar
• ant – formic, formicarian, formicid, myrmecological
• ant-eater – myrmecophagous
• antelope – antilopine
• antimony – stibial
• ape (or monkey) – simian, apish
• Aphrodite – Cytherean
• apple – malic, pomaceous
• aristocracy – genteel, aristocratic
• arm – brachial
• armpit – axillary
• arrangement – tactic
• arrow – sagittal
• ash (cinders) – cinerary
• ass (animal) – asinine
• aunt – materteral
• author – auctorial, authorial

B

• baby – infantile (often derogatory, except in medical usage); see also child/children
• back (anatomy) – dorsal, lumbar (lower part of back)
• back of the head (also called the occiput) – occipital
• badger – meline
• barber – tonsorial
• bat (animal) – chiropteran, cheiropterous, vespertilian
• bathroom – lavatorial, lavatory
• baths, bathing – balneal
• bear – ursine
• bee – apian
• beeswax – cerotic
• beetle – coleopterous
• beginning – initial, incipient
• beginning to exist, recently come into existence – nascent
• beginning, first created or developed – primordial
• bell (instrument) – tintinnabulary
• bile – cholic
• bird – avian, ornithic, volucrine
• bird of prey – raptorial
• birth – natal, parturient
• birthday – genethliac, [birthday]
• bishop – episcopal
• bizarre – grotesque
• Black Sea – euxine
• bladder – cystic, vesical
• blood – h(a)emal, h(a)ematic, h(a)emic, h(a)ematal, sanguineous
• blood vessels – vascular
• boat – see ship
• bodily motion – gestic
• body – corporal, corporeal, physical, somatic, carnal, [bodily]
• bone – osseous, osteal, osteoid, [bony]
• book – bibliographic
• boxing – pugilistic, fistic
• brain – cerebral, cerebric, encephalic
• branch – ramal, ramiform
• branching patterns – ramiferous, cladistic
• bread – panary
• breast – mammary, mammilary
• breastbone – sternal
• breeding season – nuptial
• bridge – pontine
• bright, dazzlingly radiant – fulgent
• brother – fraternal
• bud – blastous
• bug – hemipteral, hemipteran, hemipterous
• building – edificial
• bull – taurine
• business – commercial
• butter – butyric, [buttery]
• butterfly – papilionaceous, lepidopterous (also applies to moths)
• buttock – gluteal

C

• calm – halcyon
• camel – cameline
• car – automotive, motor (attributive)
• caribou – rangiferine
• carp – cyprine
• cat – feline, [catty], [kittenish]
• chalk – cretaceous
• charity – eleemosynary
• cheese – caseous, [cheesy]
• chest (anatomy) – thoracic, pectoral
• child – juvenile, puerile (usually derogatory); see also baby, [childish], [childlike]
• chin – mental, genial
• China – Sinitic, [Chinese]
• china – ceramic
• church – ecclesiastical
• citizen – civic
• city – urban, civic, metropolitan
• clock – horological
• cod – gadoid, gadine
• coin (or medal) – numismatic
• cold, perpetually cold location – hyperborean
• cold, extremely cold and/or icy – gelid
• color – tinctorial
• comb – ctenoid
• cooking – culinary, gastronomic
• copper – cupric
• count – comital
• countryside – rural, rustic, bucolic, agrestic
• courts – forensic, juridical
• cow – bovine
• cowardly, despicable – caitiff
• crane-fly – tipulid
• cricket – crickety
• crocodile – crocodilian
• cross – cruciate, cruciform
• crossword – cruciverbal
• crow – corvine

D

• dance – terpsichorean, choreographic
• daughter (or son) – filial
• dawn – auroral (see also twilight)
• day – diurnal, [daily]
• dean – decanal
• deer – cervine, rucervine (swamp deer)
• delicate, heavenly or spiritual – ethereal
• desert – xeric, eremic
• devil – diabolic/diabolical, satanic, [devilish]
• difficult to comprehend – recondite, abstruse
• diminutive, short (human) – homuncular
• disloyalty – perfidious
• disobedient, stubbornly so – contumacious
• divination, prophecy ability – mantic
• dog – canine, doggish
• dog days of summer – canicular
• dolphin – delphine
• dove – columbine, dovish (poitics)
• dream – oneiric
• drinking – potatory
• drowsiness – lethargic, soporific
• drowsy period preceding sleep – hypnagogic
• duck – anatine
• dull, lacking liveliness – vapid
• dusk – see twilight

E

• eagle – aquiline
• ear – aural, otic
• east – oriental, [easterly]
• Easter – paschal
• elbow joint – anconoid
• end – final, terminal
• equinox – equinoctial
• ereyesterday, the day before yesterday – nudiustertian
• evening – vespertine
• eye – optic, ocular, ophthalmic
• eyelid – palpebral
• hedgehog – erinaceous

F

• fat – adipic, sebaceous
• father – paternal, [fatherly]
• finch – fringilline (also applies to other small birds)
• finger (or toe) – digital
• fir – abietic
• fire – igneous (now mostly refers to rock formed by solidification of magma), [fiery]
• fish – piscatorial, piscine, ichthyic
• flesh – carnal
• flood – diluvial, diluvian, clysmian
• flower – floral, [flowery]
• fog – brumous, [foggy]
• foot (anatomy) – pedal
• forest – sylvan
• forestry – arboricultural, silvicultural
• four – quaternary
• fox – vulpine
• France – Gallic [French]
• frog – ranine, batrachian (also applies to toads)
• future – posthodiernal

G

• garden – horticultural
• gemstone – lapidary
• Germany – Teutonic
• ghost – spectral
• Glasgow – Glaswegian
• glass – vitreous, [glassy]
• goat – caprine, hircine
• god – divine, [god-like]
• gold – auric, [golden]
• goose – anserine
• governor – gubernatorial
• grass – gramineous, [grassy]
• Greece – Hellenic, Greek
• guardian – tutelary

H

• hair – pilar
• hand – manual
• hare – leporine, lagomorphic (also applies to rabbits and pikas)
• hearing – auditory, aural
• heart – cardiac
• heat – thermal, caloric
• heather – ericaceous
• hip (anatomy) – sciatic
• home – domestic, [homey]
• horse – equine
• hospital – nosocomial (referring to something acquired or occurring in a hospital)
• Halifax – Haligonian

I

• ice – glacial, [icy]
• Ireland – Hibernian, [Irish]
• iron – ferrous
• island – insular

J

• jail – carceral
• jaw (anatomy) – maxillary, gnathic, mandibular

K

• kid – see child
• kidney – renal, nephritic, nephric
• king – regal, royal

L

• lake – lacustrine
• law – legal
• lead (metal) – plumbeous, leaden
• Leeds – Leodensian
• left (direction) – sinistral, left-hand
• leg (anatomy) – crural
• letter (missive) – epistolary
• life – vital, [living]
• light (physics) – photic, optic(al), luminous
• lion – leonine
• lip (anatomy) – labial
• liver (anatomy) – hepatic
• lizard – saurian
• love (sexual) – amatory, amorous
• lung – pulmonary

M

• machine – mechanical
• man (male) – masculine, virile (particularly emphasising strength and vigour), [manly]
• man (human) – human, anthropic, personal
• marble – marmoreal
• marriage – nuptial, conjugal, connubial, hymeneal
• mass – specific, massive
• meal – prandial
• meaning – semantic
• Middle Ages - medieval
• milk – lactic, [milky]
• mind – mental
• mirror – specular
• mist – brumous, [misty]
• Monaco – Monégasque
• money – pecuniary, financial, [monetary]
• monkey (or ape) – simian
• moon – lunar
• morning – matinal
• moth (or butterfly) – lepidopterous
• mother – maternal, [motherly]
• mouse – murine
• mouth – oral
• movie - cinematic, [filmic]

N

• name – nominal
• neck – cervical
• nephew – nepotal
• nerve (anatomy) – neural, nervous
• Netherlands – Dutch
• night – nocturnal
• north – boreal, northerly, septentrional
• nose – nasal, rhinal
• noun – nominal

O

• ocean – see sea, oceanic
• oil – oleic, [oily]
• one – first
• owl – strigine, owlish

P

• parish – parochial (now usually means narrow-minded)
• past – prehodiernal
• peacock – pavonine
• pearl – margaric
• penis – phallic, penile
• (the) people – popular, demotic, [folkish]
• pig – porcine, [piggish]
• plant – botanic
• Portugal – Lusitanic
• pottery – ceramic

Q

• queen (rexina, regina) – reginal

R

• rabbit – lagomorphic (also applies to hares and pikas)
• rain – pluvial, [rainy]
• religion – theological, [religious]
• rib (anatomy) – costal
• right (direction) – dextral
• river – fluvial
• river bank – riparian
• raccoon - procyonine

S

• San Marino – Sammarinese
• sailor – nautical
• Scotland – Caledonian, [Scottish], [Scotch], [Scots]
• sea – maritime, marine, pelagic
• seal (animal/pinniped) – otarine
• shape – morphic
• sheep – ovine
• shepherd – pastoral
• ship – nautical, marine, naval (usually applies to warships)
• shore – littoral
• shrew – soricine
• sight – visual
• sign – semiotic
• sister – sororal, [sisterly]
• skin – dermal
• skull – cranial
• sky – celestial, [heavenly]
• sleep – hypnoid, sleepy, sleeping
• slug (mollusc) – limacine
• smell (sense) – olfactory
• snake – serpentine, snaky, ophidian
• snow – niveous, nival, [snowy]
• son (or daughter) – filial
• sound – sonic, acoustic
• south – austral, meridional, [southerly]
• Spain – Hispanic, [Spanish]
• sparrow – passerine (also applies to other perching birds)
• speech – verbal, [spoken]
• spider – arachnoid, [spidery]
• spring (season) – vernal, [spring-like], [springtime]
• squirrel – sciurine
• (postal)stamp – philatelic
• star – stellar, sidereal, astral
• starch – farinaceous, amyloid, [starchy]
• stomach – gastric (see also abdomen)
• sulphur – thionic, sulphuric
• summer – (a)estival, summery, summertime
• sun – solar, [sunny]
• surface – superficial
• Switzerland – Helvetian, Helvetic, [Swiss]
• symbol – semiotic, symbolic

T

• table – mensal (especially dining table), tabular
• tail (anatomy) – caudal
• tailor – sartorial
• taste (sense) – gustatory
• teacher – pedagogic(al) (now often derogatory), didactic
• ten – decimal, tenth
• three – ternary, trial, third
• threshold – liminal
• throat – pharyngeal
• thunder – fulmineous
• time – temporal
• tin – stannic
• toad (or frog) – batrachian
• today – hodiernal, hodiern
• toe (or finger) – digital
• tomorrow – crastinal
• tongue – lingual
• tooth – dental
• touch (sense) – tactile, haptic
• town – urban
• turtle – chelonian
• tree – arboreal, dendroid
• truth – veracious, truthful, true
• twilight – crepuscular (see also dawn)
• two – dual, binary, second

U

• uncle – avuncular
• underworld – chthonic, infernal

V

• vinegar – acetic
• vulture – vulturine

W

• walk – pedestrian, ambulant
• wasp – vespine
• water – aqueous, aquatic, [watery]
• wax – cerotic (specifically, beeswax), [waxy], [waxen]
• weasel – musteline, weasely
• weather – meteorological
• wedding – see marriage
• week – hebdomadal, weekly
• west – occidental, westerly
• whale – cetaceous
• wife – uxorial, wifely
• wind – aeolian (British), eolian (US), [windy]
• window – fenestral
• wine – vinic
• wing – alar
• winter – hibernal, hiemal, brumal, [wintery]
• wire – funicular
• wolf – lupine, [wolfish], wolven
• wood (area of trees) – sylvan
• woman – feminine, [womanly]
• word – lexical, verbal (usually refers to the spoken word)
• words, study of meaning and changes of meaning – semantic
• wordy, fluent or excessive talk – loquacious, garrulous
• wordy, long and verbose – prolix
• wrist – carpal

Y

• year – annual, [yearly]
• yesterday – hesternal, hestern

Z

• zebra – zebroid, zebrine
• zero – zeroth

External links

• Collateral adjective (Wikipedia)
• List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English (Wikipedia)
• Adjectives of relation