uxorial

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2010 is: uxorial • \uk-SOR-ee-ul\ • adjective : of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife Examples: “He watered the plants, cleared aspen leaves and debris from the rock garden, and cut the lawn … without any uxorial prompting.” (Rois M. Beal, The Washington Post, July 19, 2007) Did you know? With help from "-ial," "-ious," and "-icide," the Latin word "uxor," meaning "wife," has given us the English words "uxorial," "uxorious" (meaning "excessively fond of or submissive to a wife"), and "uxoricide" ("murder of a wife by her husband" or "a wife murderer"). Do we have equivalent "husband" words? Well, sort of. "Maritus" means "husband" in Latin, so "marital" can mean "of or relating to a husband and his role in marriage" (although "maritus" also means "married," and the "of or relating to marriage or the married state" sense of "marital" is far more common). And while "mariticide" is "spouse killing," it can also be specifically "husband-killing." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.