natatorial

adjective

na·​ta·​to·​ri·​al ˌnā-tə-ˈtȯr-ē-əl 

ˌna-

variants or natatory

ˈnā-tə-ˌtȯr-ē 

ˈna-

1

: of or relating to swimming

2

: adapted to or characterized by swimming

a natatorial leg of an aquatic insect

Did you know?

On a warm spring weekday afternoon, the local swimming hole beckons . . . and boys will be boys. "Mr. Foster [the town truant officer] knew very well where to find us . . . at our vernal and natatorial frolics," confessed John Gould in The Christian Science Monitor (January 10, 1992), some 70 years after that warm spring day of his youth. The Latin verb natare, meaning "to swim," gave English the word natatorial and its variant "natatory." It also gave us "natant" ("swimming or floating in water"); "supernatant" ("floating on the surface"); "natation" ("the action or art of swimming"); and last but not least, "natatorium" ("an indoor swimming pool").

Word History

First Known Use

1816, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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