reverential

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin reverentiālis, from Latin reverentia (“reverence”) + -ālis (adjectival suffix).[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛvəˈɹɛnʃəl/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective

reverential (comparative more reverential, superlative most reverential)

  1. Showing or characterized by reverence; respectful.
    Synonym: reverent
    Antonym: irreverential
    • 1867, Edward William Cox, The Arts of Writing, Reading and Speaking, page 155:
      The supposed religious tone must be banished, so far as it is applied to the book itself or to the words printed in it; but there is a reverential tone, properly applicable to the meaning conveyed by the words, which should be cultivated.
    • 2012, Jill Dolan, The Feminist Spectator as Critic, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 94:
      The reverential tone intensified as this section progressed. When each spectator had purportedly become her mother, she was invited to share her mother's wisdom, prefaced by the words "I always said."

Derived terms

Noun

reverential (plural reverentials)

  1. Someone or something that is reverential.
    • 1791, [Robert Sadler], “Penson to His Friend Bountly”, in Wanley Penson; or, The Melancholy Man: A Miscellaneous History. […], volume I, London: […] C[atharine] and G[eorge] Kearsley, […], →OCLC, page 352:
      But that eccleſiaſtical authority can exiſt (perhaps as far as it ought) without the exerciſe of civil power, we have a proof in this ſect; the degrees of whoſe prieſthood (which are as numerous I believe as in any prieſthood, conſiſting of provincial biſhops, metropolitans (or what amounts to the meaning), deacons, preſbyters, and every order of reverentials) poſſeſs, it ſeems, each one within the circle of their connection, its proper influence, fully and undiſputedly.
    • 1845, Albert Gallatin, “Mexican Language”, in Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Bartlett & Welford; London: Wiley & Putnam, →OCLC, article I (Notes on the Semi-civilized Nations of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America), appendix I (Grammatical Notes, Etc.), page 233:
      The verb is not thereby made reflective, but preserves the same signification as if not reverential. The intransitive reverentials are said to be formed from their compulsive form, and the active from their applicative.
    • 1921, John J. Gaynor, The Wine of Witchery, New York, N.Y.: James T[erry] White & Co., →OCLC, page 72:
      While reverentials wait / The triumph of His cosmic plan, / The Christ reclaims his millions in this martyrdom of man.

References

  1. ^ “reverential, adj.”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  2. ^ “reverential, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

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