Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a stepmother.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to a stepmother; suitable to a stepmother; step-motherly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to a stepmother.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Done or recurring every ninth year.
- adj. Of or pertaining to a stepmother; suitable to, or in the manner of, a stepmother.
Etymologies
- Latin novercalis, from noverca a stepmother. (Wiktionary)
- Latin novercālis, from noverca, stepmother; see newo- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“By a pathetic fallacy their capacity to suffer is measured by their apparent power to enjoy, and those are moved to tears by the spectacle of a Dauphin surrendered to the coarse and brutal tutelage of a sans-culotte, who read without emotion of thousands of Huguenot children torn from their mothers 'arms and flung to the novercal cruelties of strangers in blood and creed.”
“To that sister Lady Edgermond the second does not behave exactly in the traditionally novercal fashion, but she is scandalised by the girl's”
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century
“But the nurse suffered the pangs of a baffled stepmother, and looked with novercal eyes of hatred and disgust upon little Sam that had stolen away the hearts of men and women from one that in _her_ eyes was a thousand times his superior.”
“Oh! may we soon blot out the reproach which that neglect has justly rendered us liable to, since we abolished the novercal government of Britain!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘novercal’.
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phrontistery - n
from phrontistery.info
nymphology, nympholepsy, nyctophobia, nymphean, nyctograph, nyctanthous, nyctalopia, nychthemeral, nutricial, nutrice, nutrication, nychthemeron and 340 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Webs
Words about relations.
novercal, phratry, stirps, spindle kin, kinnery, ashram, filiation, phratria, deme, apparentation, homology, spear kin and 41 more...
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Extended Family
There's an Irish joke that goes something like this. After listening to a sermon in which the priest rails on about promiscuity from the pulpit, the following exchange takes place between an elderl...
tritavus, tritavia, aval, matima, materteral, avuncular, novercal, tetnit, quatrayle, oom, nepotal, yokemate and 8 more...
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herotuesday's Words
butyraceous, thrasonical, turgid, ululate, irenic, punctilio, discombobulate, ecdysiast, formicate, favonian, agnate, erubescence and 614 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for novercal.
sionnach adjective, pertaining to a stepmother. Is there a corresponding adjective for stepfathers? Jan 30, 2007