word for "overly fond of one's children"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:21 AM -0600 1/20/06, Joan Houston Hall wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>
>        My name is Michael Paris and I am currently a sophomore studying
>Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  I have been
>researching, though to no avail, for a word that means "overly fond of
>one's children."  I have found the word "uxorious" which means "excessively
>devoted to one's wife," though I have found nothing pertaining to children
>(at least nothing not pertaining to the sexual.)  I did come across the
>word "pueritious," although I believe it is only a "made-up-word" and
>doesn't quite achieve what I'm looking for as it seems to imply "a love of
>the childish."  If you have any answers, suggestions, or contacts that may
>know the answer to this question I would greatly appreciate a reply.  Thank
>you for your time and consideration, and I hope to hear from you soon.
>
>Sincerely, Michael V. Paris
>University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
>michavin at umich.edu
>
I don't have such a word on me, but I thought it was worth noting
that there's a nonce word, _maritorious_ for 'one excessively devoted
to one's husband', virtually a hapax legomenon cited by the OED in
this couplet

1607 G. CHAPMAN Bussy d'Ambois II. 22 Dames maritorious, ne're were
meritorious.

(Some would claim that no such word has traditionally existed because
women are *supposed* to be excessively fond of their husbands.)
Given that the relevant sense of 'offspring, (one's own) child' in
Latin is _filius, -a_ (rather than the _pædi-_ or _puer/puella_
roots), I'd guess _filiorius_  would be the expected item you're
looking for, but I suspect you'd have to look very far and wide to
find it.

Larry

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