filial

English

WOTD – 12 August 2008

Etymology

From Middle English filial, from Latin fīliālis, from filius (“son”) / filia (“daughter”) + -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪl.i.əl/, /ˈfɪl.jəl/
  • Hyphenation: fil‧i‧al
• (US, also) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.li.əl/
  • Hyphenation: fi‧li‧al

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪliəl, -ɪljəl, -iːliəl

Adjective

filial (comparative more filial, superlative most filial)

1. (not comparable) Pertaining to or befitting a son or daughter.

   Antonym: unfilial

   Hyponyms: daughterly, sonly

   Coordinate terms: motherly, maternal, parental, fatherly, paternal

   • 1794, Charlotte Smith, “Chapter 20”, in The Banished Man, volume 2:

     The filial duty Ellesmere had paid to a father, who had no other claim to it than that he was his father, was now consoling to him [D'Alonville]; […]

   • 2024 June 23, Sui-Lee Wee, “Why Southeast Asia Is Crying Over This Movie”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 23 June 2024:

     The plot revolves around an aimless and unemployed young man, M, whose sole ambition is to livestream his online games. He volunteers to take care of his maternal grandmother after he finds out she has Stage 4 cancer. His motivation is not filial piety; instead, he hopes that he can inherit her house.

2. (comparable) Respectful of the duties and attitudes of sons or daughters toward their parents.
   • 1885, The actions and Attitude of Filiality, (Please provide the book title or journal name), translation of original by ConfuciusJames Legge:

     If the admonition [to the parent] does not take effect, the son will be more reverential and more filial; […]

3. (genetics) Of a generation or generations descending from a specific previous one.

   Coordinate term: parental

   • 1916, William E. Castle, Gregor Mendel, Genetics & Eugenics‎^[2], page 101:

     This, following Bateson, we may call the parental generation or P generation. Subsequent generations are called filial generations (abbreviated F) and their numerical order is indicated by a subscript, as first filial (F₁), second filial (F₂), etc.

Derived terms

• filial duty
• filial generation
• filially
• filialness
• filial piety
• filiopietistic
• grandfilial
• nonfilial

Related terms

• filiation

Translations

pertaining to a son or daughter

• Arabic: إِبْنِيّ (ʔibniyy)
• Belarusian: сыно́ўскі (synówski), сы́наў (sýnaw), даччы́н (daččýn) (daughterly)
• Bulgarian: сино́вен (sinóven), на дъщеря́ (na dǎšterjá) (daughterly), дъ́щерен (dǎ́šteren) (daughterly)
• Catalan: filial (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 子女的 (zǐnǚ de)

• Czech: synovský
• Danish: sønlig (sonly), datterlig (daughterly)
• Dutch: zoonlijk, dochterlijk (daughterly)
• Esperanto: fila (eo), filina
• Estonian: lapselik
• Finnish: lapsenomainen (fi)
• French: filial (fr)
• Galician: filial
• German: söhnlich (sonly), töchterlich (daughterly), filial (de)
• Greek: θυγατρικός (el) (thygatrikós)
• Italian: filiale (it)
• Manx: macoil
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: sønnlig (sonly), datterlig (daughterly)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: barnleg

• Polish: synowski (pl) m (sonly), córczyny m (daughterly)
• Portuguese: filial (pt)
• Russian: сыно́вий (ru) (synóvij), сыно́вний (ru) (synóvnij), доче́рний (ru) (dočérnij) (daughterly), дочери́нский (dočerínskij) (daughterly)
• Scottish Gaelic: macail
• Slovak: synovský
• Spanish: filial (es)
• Ukrainian: сині́вський (synívsʹkyj), си́нів (sýniv), дочі́рній (dočírnij) (daughterly), доччи́н (doččýn) (daughterly), до́ньчин (dónʹčyn) (daughterly)
• Welsh: mabol (sonly)

respectful of the duties and attitudes of a son or daughter toward their parents

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 孝順嘅 / 孝顺嘅 (haau³ seon⁶ ge³)

  Mandarin: 孝順的 / 孝顺的 (xiàoshùn de)

• Finnish: lapsenomainen (fi), vanhempiaan kunnioittava
• Japanese: 孝行する (kōkō-suru)
• Korean: 효도하다 (ko) (hyodohada), 효행하다 (hyohaenghada)

of descending generation or generations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 子代的

• Finnish: jälkeläis- (fi), jälki- (fi) (in term jälkipolvi)

Azerbaijani

Other scripts

Cyrillic		филиал
Arabic		فیلیال

Etymology

From German Filiale, from Latin fīliālis (“of or pertaining to a son or daughter”).

Noun

filial (definite accusative filialı, plural filiallar)

1. filial, branch.

References

• Orucov, Əliheydər, editor (2006), “filial”, in Azərbaycan dilinin izahlı lüğəti [Explanatory Dictionary of the Azerbaijani Language]‎^[3] (in Azerbaijani), 2nd edition, volume 2, Baku: Şərq-Qərb

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fīliālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [fi.liˈal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

filial m or f (masculine and feminine plural filials)

1. filial

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

From German Filiale, from Latin fīliālis (“of or pertaining to a son or daughter”).

Noun

filial

1. filial, branch.

Declension

Declension of filial

nominative	filial
genitive	filialnıñ
dative	filialğa
accusative	filialnı
locative	filialda
ablative	filialdan

References

• Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002), Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎^[4], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Danish

Etymology

From Latin filialis

Noun

filial c (singular definite filialen, plural indefinite filialer)

1. (business) branch.

Declension

Declension of filial

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	filial	filialen	filialer	filialerne
genitive	filials	filialens	filialers	filialernes

Further reading

• “filial” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

From Latin fīliālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.ljal/

Adjective

filial (feminine filiale, masculine plural filiaux, feminine plural filiales)

1. filial (characteristic of or befitting the relationship between a son or daughter and their parents)

Derived terms

• filiale n. f.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• failli

Indonesian

Noun

filial (plural filial-filial)

1. filial branch

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin fīliālis.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /fi.liˈaw/ [fi.lɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /fiˈljaw/ [fiˈljaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fiˈljal/ [fiˈljaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fiˈljal/ [fiˈljaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /fiˈlja.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: fi‧li‧al

Adjective

filial m or f (plural filiais)

1. filial (pertaining to a son or daughter)

Noun

filial f (plural filiais)

1. branch office

   Synonym: sucursal

Related terms

• filho

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French filial.

Adjective

filial m or n (feminine singular filială, masculine plural filiali, feminine/neuter plural filiale)

1. filial

Declension

Declension of filial

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	filial		filială		filiali	filiale
	definite	filialul		filiala		filialii	filialele
genitive- dative	indefinite	filial		filiale		filiali	filiale
	definite	filialului		filialei		filialilor	filialelor

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin fīliālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈljal/ [fiˈljal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: fi‧lial

Adjective

filial m or f (masculine and feminine plural filiales)

1. filial

Noun

filial f (plural filiales)

1. subsidiary, branch

Noun

filial m (plural filiales)

1. (sports) reserve team, B team

   Synonym: equipo filial

Further reading

• “filial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Swedish

Etymology

From Latin filial

Noun

filial c

1. branch (office of an organization with several locations)

Declension

Declension of filial

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	filial	filials
	definite	filialen	filialens
plural	indefinite	filialer	filialers
	definite	filialerna	filialernas

Related terms

• bankfilial
• filialaffär
• filialkontor

References

• filial in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• filial in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• filial in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Volapük

Noun

filial (nominative plural filials)

1. subsidiary, branch

Declension

Declension of filial

	singular	plural
nominative	filial	filials
genitive	filiala	filialas
dative	filiale	filiales
accusative	filiali	filialis
vocative 1	o filial!	o filials!
predicative 2	filialu	filialus

¹ status as a case is disputed
² in later, non-classical Volapük only