Word of the Day

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

filial

\FIL-ee-uhl; FIL-yuhl\ , adjective;

Of, pertaining to, or befitting a son or daughter; as, filial obedience.

Having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring.

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Quotes:

He would live with his mother for nearly his entire life, bound to her by an inordinate sense of filial piety.

-- Deborah Solomon, Utopia Parkway

If he valued his son's literacy for anything more than its teaching of filial behavior and practical bookkeeping, it was so that his son's knowledge of classical texts and use of some well-chosen quotations, produced at the right moment, "could help him in winning lawsuits."

-- Jonathan Spence, Mao Zedong

Origin:

Filial derives from Latin filius, "son."