matitudinal

matitudinal

English

WOTD – 30 September 2022

Etymology

A variant of matutinal (possibly influenced by French matin (“morning”)), which is borrowed from Middle French matutinal (modern French matutinal), and from its etymon Late Latin mātūtīnālis (“(adjective) belonging to the morning; of or pertaining to matins; (noun) morning hymn or psalm; book of lauds”), from Latin mātūtīnus (“of, occurring in, or pertaining to the early morning, matutine”) (from Mātūta (“Roman goddess of the dawn or morning”) (from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂- (“to mature, ripen; opportune, timely; good, great”)) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship).[1][2]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌmætɪˈt(j)uːdɪnl̩/, /-ˈt͡ʃuː-/

• Audio (southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmætəˈt(j)udənl̩/, [-ɾə-], /-ˈt͡ʃu-/
• Hyphenation: ma‧ti‧tu‧din‧al

Adjective

matitudinal (not comparable)

1. (formal or literary) Synonym of matutinal
   1. Of, occurring in, or relating to the morning, especially the early morning upon waking up.

      Synonyms: (chiefly US, rare) matutinary, matutine

      • 1825, Rev. Dr. Dryasdust [pseudonym], “The Lost Wig”, in The Common-place Book of Literary Curiosities, Remarkable Customs, Historical and Domestic Anecdotes, and Etymological Scraps, London: John Bumpus, […], OCLC 314782281, page 324:

        It so happened, that one morning, while Lord C—— was preparing to enjoy his matitudinal treat, two girls who lived in the second flat above, were amusing themselves with a kitten, […]

      • 1847, W[illiam] H[amilton] Maxwell, chapter VII, in Hill-side and Border Sketches: With Legends of the Cheviots and the Lammermuir. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 2739596, pages 139–140:

        With these slight assistants to support nature, and a Dolland's achromatic in his hands—by the way, a camp-stool or air-cushion is indispensable—there will he patiently keep watch for "The antler'd monarch of the waste," from the matitudinal meal even unto the dinner hour.

      • 1870, Emma Jane Worboise, “Via Boulogne”, in Grey and Gold, London: James Clarke and Co., […]; Hodder & Stoughton, […], OCLC 300654242, page 402:

        On one part of the beach bathing was going on energetically, and there was also a fair show of pedestrians, many of them evidently English, taking their matitudinal exercise and inhaling the sea-breezes.

      • 1876 August, Propertius [pseudonym; Archibald Romanes], “Part I”, in Notes of a Trip to the Haunts of Tannahill and the Land of Burns. […], Dunfermline, Fife: A[rchibald] Romanes, […], page 1:

        We—(that is the humble namesakes of the classic trio, Catallus, Tibullus, and Propertius)—never made the Continental tour—never ascended Mont Blanc and tumbled into a crevasse, or boiled our matitudinal eggs in the crater of Mount Vesuvius.

      • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (Crest Giant; D338), Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, published December 1959, OCLC 768447, part 2, page 148:

        How smugly would I marvel that she was mine, mine, mine, and revise the recent matitudinal swoon to the moan of the mourning doves, […]

      • 1995, Philip Thody; with the assistance of Howard Evans; Michelle Pepratx-Evans, “Loan Words, Nationalism and the Law”, in Le Franglais: Forbidden English, Forbidden American: Law, Politics and Language in Contemporary France: A Study in Loan Words and National Identity, London; Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Athlone Press, →ISBN, part I (Arguments), page 54:

        Thus in no other area does the English student of French feel more envious of the opportunities available to the French student of English than when she or he compares the wealth and variety of programmes put out on BBC Radio 4 – to say nothing of those offered to the matitudinal insomniac by the BBC World Service – with what is available on France-Inter.

      • 2004, Diana M. Swancutt, “Christian ‘Rock’ Music at Corinth?”, in Harold W[illiam] Attridge and Margot E. Fassler, editors, Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series; no. 25), Leiden; Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, ISSN 1569-3627, part 2 (Psalms in Christian Origins), page 133:

        Concluded by a matitudinal hymn composed of psalm fragments, twelve of the collection's fourteen songs are excerpts from poetic Scriptures, and the second and third of these are the Rock psalms, Deut[eronomy] 32 and 1 Sam[uel] 2.

   2. Active in the morning; waking up early.
      • 2012, Hilary Heilbron, “Adjustment to Motherhood and in Demand as a Speaker”, in Rose Heilbron: The Story of England’s First Woman Queen’s Counsel and Judge, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Portland, Or.: Hart Publishing, →ISBN, page 102:

        Huyton College had the advantage of a school bus, which particularly when Hilary was a teenager, never being matitudinal by nature, she managed to miss each morning, […]

Hypernyms

• crepuscular

Coordinate terms

• diurnal
• nocturnal
• vespertine

Related terms

• matinee
• matin (obsolete)
• matins
• matutinal
• matutinary (chiefly US, rare)
• matutine

 

Translations

synonym of matutinal — see matutinal

References

1. “matutinal, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022.
2. “matutinal, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.