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prettygoodwordnovercal (noh-VUR-kuhl) - adj., of, relating to, or characteristic of a stepmother.
Yup, we have a word for that, a recondite one to be sure -- the go-to usage example is from Robert Browning (totally on brand for him), from The Ring and the Book book 2: "of true novercal type, / Dragon and devil." Which hints that the negative stereotype of stepmothers is a strong connotation. Adopted around 1620 from Latin novercālis, from noverca, stepmother -- which has the stem novus, new, with an otherwise obscure suffix, though the overall sense is probably "the new one."
---L.
Yup, we have a word for that, a recondite one to be sure -- the go-to usage example is from Robert Browning (totally on brand for him), from The Ring and the Book book 2: "of true novercal type, / Dragon and devil." Which hints that the negative stereotype of stepmothers is a strong connotation. Adopted around 1620 from Latin novercālis, from noverca, stepmother -- which has the stem novus, new, with an otherwise obscure suffix, though the overall sense is probably "the new one."
---L.
