Nuptial means to do with marriage and its ceremony. Nuptial vows, the nuptial bed, nuptial arrangements.
It is formal and slightly grand, and the plural noun nuptials means the wedding itself, usually said with a smile. In biology, nuptial plumage is the breeding colouring a bird puts on, which is a neat borrowing of the word.
1adjectivenuptialTo do with marriage and its ceremony.
“The couple planned a small nuptial celebration with only close family.”
nuptial is a quality.
Latin nuptialis comes from nuptiae, a wedding, from nubere, to marry or take a husband.
Latin
nūptiālis — pertaining to marriage
English, today
nuptial
Built from
Latin nūptiālis (“pertaining to marriage”), from nūptiae (“wedding”), from nūbō (“to marry, to take as husband”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA