jentacular

English

WOTD – 18 March 2022

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin iēntāculum (“breakfast (particularly taken right after getting up)”) + English -ar (suffix meaning ‘of, near, or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Iēntāculum is derived from ientō (a variant of ieientō (“to have breakfast”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yaǵ- (“to sacrifice; to worship”)) + -culum (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛnˈtækjʊlə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛnˈtækjəlɚ/
• Rhymes: -ækjʊlə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: jen‧ta‧cul‧ar

Adjective

jentacular

1. (formal, chiefly archaic) Of or pertaining to breakfast; specifically, one taken early in the morning or immediately upon getting up.

   I took a post-jentacular walk to settle my stomach.

   • 1726, [Nicholas Amhurst], “Appendix. A Letter to the Reverend Dr. [Richard] Newton, Principal of Hart-Hall; Occasion’d by His Book Entitled, University Education, &c.”, in Terræ-filius: Or, The Secret History of the University of Oxford; in Several Essays. […], London: […] R. Francklin, […], →OCLC, page 330:

     [T]he conſumption of Tea and Coffee; a faſhionable vice, vvhich tends only to ſquandring avvay money, and miſpending the morning; ſince (as you once ingeniouſly expreſs'd it) nothing more can be expected from thoſe Jentacular Confabulations.

   • 1810, “For Improving Coffee”, in The New Family Receipt-Book, Containing Seven Hundred Truly Valuable Receipts in Various Branches of Domestic Economy; […], London: […] Squire and Warwick, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     To valetudinarians and others the following method of making coffee for breakfast is earnestly recommended, as a most wholesome and pleasant jentacular beverage, first ordered by an able physician.

   • late 1840s, Donald J. Lange, quoting George Darley, “The Life of George Darley: The Eighteen Forties”, in The Life and Poetry of George Darley, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, published 2020, →ISBN, page 125:

     Do you ever by chance do such a saluberrimous thing […], as to walk into town before breakfast? If you ever do, I should be most glad to see you either here or at Nº 6 Lower Belgrave St South, Eaton Square, at your choice. Here there be jentacular comforts in great abundance— […]

     Quotation from a letter to the Rev. F. Maurice.

   • 1860 May, George Cupples, “Loch-Na-Diomhair—The Lake of the Secret. A Highland Flight.”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume II, number 7, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, section I (How We Set Out for It—Ickerson and I), page 22, column 1:

     On Ickerson's part, with the help of "a few post-jentacular inhalations," as he in his colossal manner was pleased to phrase it, "from that fragrant weed which so propitiates clearness of thought, and tends to promote equanimity in action."

   • 1861 October, “From Oxford to St. George’s”, in Baily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume II, number 8, London: Baily Brothers, […], →OCLC, chapter IX, page 20:

     Nature is nature; ignore her if you will; so Grey, like a sensible man, went to work, con amore, at his jentacular meal.

   • 1912, William Murison, “Perspicuity”, in English Composition: Part I: Uses of Words, Figures of Speech, Sentence and Paragraph Construction, Punctuation, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 62:

     Point out instances of want of simplicity and of directness in the following. Express the meaning simply and directly. […] The advent of the butler with a brace of footmen announced the arrival of the urn and the various jentacular appurtenances.

   • 2003, Michael Griffith, “Kidnapped (A Romance)”, in Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories, New York, N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, →ISBN, page 163:

     The Gentleman loved to hold that crackling rectangle [a newspaper] in front of his face (folded, of course, into courteous fourths), loved the slant of the jentacular sun, the slightly acrid odor of the newsprint, the snappy headlines: […]

   • 2009, William Penn, chapter VIII, in Love in the Time of Flowers, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, published 12 July 2012, →ISBN, book VIII, section 6, page 506:

     Dressed in an asphodel green bombagette frock, loosefitting and lightweight to accomplish a jentacular ease, […]

Hypernyms

• prandial

Derived terms

• antejentacular
• postjentacular

Translations

of or pertaining to breakfast

See also

• breakfastlike
• dinnerlike

Further reading

• breakfast on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• James Stormonth (1879) “jentacular”, in Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language […], 5th edition, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 755, column 2: “jentacular, […] applied to a breakfast taken early in the morning, or immediately on getting up: pre-jentacular, applied to what is done early in the morning, as taking a breakfast before getting up.”