baptismal

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English baptism

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālisbor.

Old French -albor.

▲

Latin -ālis

Old French -elbor.

▲

Latin -ālisbor.

Middle English -al

English -al

English baptismal

From baptism + -al.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

baptismal (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to baptism.
2. Of a name, conferred at baptism.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:

     The neophyte was given a new name in place of the baptismal one, usually of an evil and revolting character, and this was written in blood in the Devil's book, the covers of which were bound in the skin of unbaptised infants.

Derived terms

• antebaptismal
• baptismal font
• baptismally
• baptismal name
• nonbaptismal
• postbaptismal
• prebaptismal

Translations

relating to baptism

• Asturian: bautismal
• Catalan: baptismal
• Esperanto: bapta
• French: baptismal (fr)
• Galician: bautismal (gl)
• Italian: battesimale
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: baptistisk

• Polish: chrzcielny (pl)
• Portuguese: batismal (pt)
• Spanish: bautismal (es), baptismal

Noun

baptismal (plural baptismals)

1. A baptismal name: a name given at baptism.
   • 1872, Augustus De Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes, page 120:

     ...Mr. Andrew Theophilus Smith, or some such unlikely pair of baptismals...

2. A baptismal font: a large basin used for baptism.

   The baptismal is in the front of the sanctuary.

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [bəp.tizˈmal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [bap.tizˈmal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

baptismal m or f (masculine and feminine plural baptismals)

1. baptismal

French

Adjective

baptismal (feminine baptismale, masculine plural baptismaux, feminine plural baptismales)

1. baptismal

Derived terms

• fonts baptismaux

Further reading

• “baptismal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Adjective

baptismal m or f (plural baptismais)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1990 in Portugal) of batismal; still used where the agreement hasn’t come into effect and may occur as a sporadic misspelling

Further reading

• “baptismal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Adjective

baptismal m or f (masculine and feminine plural baptismales)

1. archaic form of bautismal

Further reading

• “baptismal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025