Meaning

adjective involving the mind or an intellectual process

adjective of or relating to the mind

adjective of or relating to the chin- or liplike structure in insects and certain mollusks

originEtymology tree Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥tós Proto-Italic *məntom Latin mentum Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English mental c. 1727, from Latin mentum (“the chin”) + -al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0