This adjective describes things belonging to the early morning hours, just after sunrise. In Luke's resurrection narrative, it modifies the women who arrived at the tomb 'early,' capturing the time when darkness gives way to first light. The multilingual evidence—from Spanish 'de madrugada' to French 'matinal'—confirms the temporal focus on dawn. The word evokes that liminal moment when night yields to day, particularly significant in a passage where literal dawn accompanies the discovery of an empty tomb.