PRONUNCIATION:

(HY-uh-muhl) 

MEANING:

adjective: Of or relating to winter.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin hiems (winter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera, hibernate, and the Himalayas (from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode)). Earliest documented use: 1560.

USAGE:

“Painted turtles tend to move into deeper water during the autumnal season, and dormancy occurs during the hiemal period.”
Carl Ernst and Jeffrey Lovich; Turtles of the United States and Canada; The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2009.