Word of the Day

: June 21, 2007

estival

adjective ESS-tuh-vul

What It Means

: of or relating to the summer

estival in Context

On summer evenings, Carl would sit for hours on the porch enjoying the warmth of the estival breezes.

Did You Know?

"Estival" and "festival" look so much alike that you might think they're very closely related, but that isn't the case. "Estival" traces back to "aestas," which is the Latin word for "summer" (and which also gave us "estivate," a verb for spending the summer in a torpid state -- a sort of hot-weather equivalent of hibernation). "Festival" also comes from Latin, but it has a different and unrelated root. It derives from "festivus," a term that means "festive" or "merry." "Festivus" is also the ancestor of "festive" and "festivity" as well as the much rarer "festivous" (which also means "festive") and "infestive," meaning "not merry, mirthless."