Maternal means relating to a mother — or motherly. Material is the stuff something is made of, or as an adjective, physical and relevant. Maternal instinct; building material. They share a root — the Romans saw matter as the mother-stuff of things — and nothing else.
The core difference
- maternal — of or like a mother; on the mother's side. Maternal grandmother, maternal love, maternal health.
- material — noun: a substance things are made from; cloth; facts or ideas to work with. Raw materials, dress material, research material. Adjective: physical; significant. Material possessions, a material difference.
The tell
Maternal sits with mother, maternity and matriarch. Material sits with matter. The slip usually runs one way: material instinct for maternal instinct, and maternity is almost never written for materials. If a mother is in the sentence, it is maternal.
In use
- maternal — My maternal grandfather was a miner. She felt a sudden maternal protectiveness.
- material — The material frays at the edges. He was never interested in material wealth.
Common slips
- material instinct → maternal instinct
- building maternals → building materials
Maternal is mother; material is matter.
Where the words come from
Maternal is from Latin maternus, from mater "mother". Material is from Latin materia, "matter, timber" — and materia itself comes from mater: the hard inner wood of a tree was seen as its mother-stuff, the source of growth. So the two are the same root, one kept for mothers and one for matter.
