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hibernal

[hahy-bur-nl]
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adjective
  1. of or relating to winter; wintry.
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Origin of hibernal

1620–30; < Latin hībernālis, equivalent to hībern(us) wintry + -ālis -al1; akin to hiems winter (see hiemal)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

desolate, frozen, freezing, chilly, icy, frigid, bleak, frosty, biting, cutting, dismal, harsh, raw, snappy, brumal, hibernal, hiemal, icebox

Examples from the Web for hibernal

Historical Examples

  • An hibernal study of Arthropoda with reference to hibernation.

    The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches

    Louis M. Roth

  • The Antonovka and the Hibernal seem to be about the healthiest in this respect.

  • I have top-worked about forty varieties on the Virginia and some on Hibernal.

  • Here, in lower latitude, the rocks appear rather scorched by a torrid sun than lashed by winter rain and hibernal furies.

    Unexplored Spain

    Abel Chapman

  • The cave bear retired into the same retreats, but he probably only came there to pass the period of his hibernal sleep.

    Primitive Man

    Louis Figuier

British Dictionary definitions for hibernal

hibernal

adjective
  1. of or occurring in winter
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Word Origin

C17: from Latin hībernālis, from hiems winter
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hibernal

adj.

1620s, from Latin hibernalis "wintry," from hibernus "of winter," from hiems "winter" (see hibernation).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper