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If paternal is "relating to someone's parents", and fraternal "relating to someone's brothers", is there, or why isn't there, a word for "relating to someone's sons", i.e: sunternal Sentence example: "sunternal love"

Andrea Rowlatt
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    I thought paternal was "relating to someone's father" and maternal was "relating to someone's mother". As far as I know, there is no gender neutral term (yet) – Michael J. Jul 03 '19 at 12:45
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    @MichaelJ. the gender neutral term could be "parental" – eques Jul 03 '19 at 12:51

2 Answers2

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There is filial, from Latin filius "son" and filia "daughter". So filial love should work in most contexts.

Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
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    You only got here first because I had to go to the grocer. :) – tchrist Jul 02 '19 at 23:30
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    @tchrist♦: How grocerly of you. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '19 at 00:58
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    Only thing is that there is no distinction if it is sons or daughters if is of importance. – Viktor Mellgren Jul 03 '19 at 08:49
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    I'll have to file this away for the next time I meet somebody claiming that the English language is intrinsically sexist! (Although we do have "daughterly", but no such word I can think of for a son -- not sure what that implies, apart from the expected lack of regulatity in English). – nigel222 Jul 03 '19 at 09:37
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    @nigel222: Sonly does actually exist. But I do agree that's it's not really in common usage. According to the link, its usage has essentially tanked since the 1780s. – Flater Jul 03 '19 at 10:41
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    @tchrist very mercatorial – Phil M Jones Jul 03 '19 at 12:22
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    For what it's worth, filial piety is a common term in anthropology and cultural studies. – Michaelyus Jul 03 '19 at 14:16
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    @Cerberus If you wanted a worse pun: How grocious of you. –  Jul 03 '19 at 17:43
  • In several languages for example swedish filial is word in business when a company opens an office or shop in a new city. Surely must be from latin. – mathreadler Jul 03 '19 at 19:19
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    @Michaelyus It is (also) the standard translation of Chinese 孝 xiào, one of the main virtues in Confucianist writings and to this day a much-valued trait in young men especially. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jul 03 '19 at 21:04
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    @Hosch250: Hah, that would have been even better. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '19 at 22:14
  • Adding context to the answer, filial applies to both sons and daughters because filius is the second declension Latin noun for son, and filia is the first declension Latin noun for daughter. Latin nouns have various endings to denote gender, number [singular / plural], and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative and vocative). Most first declension Latin nouns are feminine gender, but there are exceptions such as nauta [sailor] that are masculine gender. – Len Greski Jul 04 '19 at 18:28
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    @LenGreski: Quite so! See also this question: https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/5852/what-is-the-origin-of-the-a-in-words-like-collega-advena – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jul 04 '19 at 20:57
  • @mathreadler, that is correct, and whats more interesting is that it is to distinguish from a daughter company which needs to be an Aktiebolag (AB) . – Viktor Mellgren Jul 05 '19 at 12:34
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    @ViktorMellgren: Filiaal is also used in Dutch in that sense. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jul 05 '19 at 12:47
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Perhaps "progenic" would also be a suitable candidate. Progenic is the adjective form of progeny - which means "child or offspring".

Coomie
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