jentacular

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English

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin iēntāculum (breakfast (particularly taken right after getting up)) + English -ar (suffix meaning ‘of, near, or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).[1] Iēntāculum is derived from ientō (a variant of ieientō (to have breakfast), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yaǵ- (to sacrifice; to worship)) + -culum (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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jentacular

  1. (formal, chiefly archaic) Of or pertaining to breakfast; specifically, one taken early in the morning or immediately upon getting up.
    I took a post-jentacular walk to settle my stomach.
    • 1726, [Nicholas Amhurst], “Appendix. A Letter to the Reverend Dr. [Richard] Newton, Principal of Hart-Hall; Occasion’d by His Book Entitled, University Education, &c.”, in Terræ-filius: Or, The Secret History of the University of Oxford; in Several Essays. [], London: [] R. Francklin, [], →OCLC, page 330:
      [T]he conſumption of Tea and Coffee; a faſhionable vice, vvhich tends only to ſquandring avvay money, and miſpending the morning; ſince (as you once ingeniouſly expreſs'd it) nothing more can be expected from thoſe Jentacular Confabulations.
    • 1810, “For Improving Coffee”, in The New Family Receipt-Book, Containing Seven Hundred Truly Valuable Receipts in Various Branches of Domestic Economy; [], London: [] Squire and Warwick, [], for John Murray, [], →OCLC, page 85:
      To valetudinarians and others the following method of making coffee for breakfast is earnestly recommended, as a most wholesome and pleasant jentacular beverage, first ordered by an able physician.
    • late 1840s, Donald J. Lange, quoting George Darley, “The Life of George Darley: The Eighteen Forties”, in The Life and Poetry of George Darley, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, published 2020, →ISBN, page 125:
      Do you ever by chance do such a saluberrimous thing [], as to walk into town before breakfast? If you ever do, I should be most glad to see you either here or at Nº 6 Lower Belgrave St South, Eaton Square, at your choice. Here there be jentacular comforts in great abundance— []
      Quotation from a letter to the Rev. F. Maurice.
    • 1860 May, George Cupples, “Loch-Na-Diomhair—The Lake of the Secret. A Highland Flight.”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume II, number 7, London: Macmillan and Co. [], →OCLC, section I (How We Set Out for It—Ickerson and I), page 22, column 1:
      On Ickerson's part, with the help of "a few post-jentacular inhalations," as he in his colossal manner was pleased to phrase it, "from that fragrant weed which so propitiates clearness of thought, and tends to promote equanimity in action."
    • 1861 October, “From Oxford to St. George’s”, in Baily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume II, number 8, London: Baily Brothers, [], →OCLC, chapter IX, page 20:
      Nature is nature; ignore her if you will; so Grey, like a sensible man, went to work, con amore, at his jentacular meal.
    • 1912, William Murison, “Perspicuity”, in English Composition: Part I: Uses of Words, Figures of Speech, Sentence and Paragraph Construction, Punctuation, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 62:
      Point out instances of want of simplicity and of directness in the following. Express the meaning simply and directly. [] The advent of the butler with a brace of footmen announced the arrival of the urn and the various jentacular appurtenances.
    • 2003, Michael Griffith, “Kidnapped (A Romance)”, in Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories, New York, N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, →ISBN, page 163:
      The Gentleman loved to hold that crackling rectangle [a newspaper] in front of his face (folded, of course, into courteous fourths), loved the slant of the jentacular sun, the slightly acrid odor of the newsprint, the snappy headlines: []
    • 2009, William Penn, chapter VIII, in Love in the Time of Flowers, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, published 12 July 2012, →ISBN, book VIII, section 6, page 506:
      Dressed in an asphodel green bombagette frock, loosefitting and lightweight to accomplish a jentacular ease, []

Hypernyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ † jentacular, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2019.

Further reading

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  • breakfast on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • James Stormonth (1879) “jentacular”, in Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language [], 5th edition, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 755, column 2:jentacular, [] applied to a breakfast taken early in the morning, or immediately on getting up: pre-jentacular, applied to what is done early in the morning, as taking a breakfast before getting up.