mother
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmʌðə/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmʌðɚ/
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈmɐðə/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
- (Northern England) IPA(key): /ˈmʊðə/
- (Ireland) IPA(key): /ˈmʊðəɹ/
- (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA(key): /ˈmʌðəɹ/
- Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: moth‧er
Etymology 1
Etymology tree
From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and matter.
Some have proposed that the "dregs" sense is from Middle Dutch modder (“filth”), from Proto-Germanic *muþraz (“sediment”), but modder is not known in this meaning. On the other hand, words for "mother" have developed the secondary sense of "dregs" in several Romance and Germanic languages; compare Dutch moer, French mère de vinaigre, German Essigmutter, Italian madre, Medieval Latin māter, and Spanish madre.[1]
Alternative forms
- mither (Scotland and Northern England)
Noun
mother (plural mothers)
- A female parent, sometimes especially a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).
- Hyponym: matron
- I am visiting my mother today.
- The lioness was a mother of four cubs.
- A female who has given birth to a baby; this person in relation to her child or children.
- Hyponym: matron
- My sister-in-law has just become a mother for the first time.
- He had something of his mother in him.
- 1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son:
- He had something of his mother in him, but this was because he realized that in the end only her love was unconditional, and in gratitude he had emulated her.
- 2005, Trudelle Thomas, Spirituality in the Mother Zone: Staying Centered, Finding God, Paulist Press, →ISBN, page 41:
- The "Ritual to Celebrate Birthing" begins with a leader welcoming all participants : "Welcome to this celebration for N. She is approaching the time when she will become a mother for the first time (or become a mother again).
- A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
- Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
- 1991, Susan Faludi, The Undeclared War Against American Women:
- The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.
- 2006, Multiplicity Yours: Cloning, Stem Cell Research, and Regenerative Medicine, →ISBN:
- To clone a boy, it is necessary to have a man as a DNA donor, a woman as an egg donor, and may be another woman as a surrogate mother.
- 2023 January 16, Reinhard Renneberg, Biotechnology for Beginners, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 317:
- If the cat to be cloned is female, the nucleus donor cat could also be used as the surrogate mother instead of another cat.
- A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
- Synonym: biological mother
- (figuratively) A female ancestor.
- Coordinate term: matriarch
- 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Genesis iij:[20], folio iiij, verso:
- (figuratively) A source or origin.
- Near-synonym: matrix
- The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 147, column 1:
- Alas poore Countrey, / Almoſt affraid to know it ſelfe. It cannot / Be call’d our Mother, but our Graue;
- 1844, Thomas Arnold, Fragment on the Church, volume 1, page 17:
- But one in the place of God and not God, is as it were a falsehood; it is the mother falsehood from which all idolatry is derived.
- 2013 October 31, Rowena Mason, quoting David Steel, “Lord Steel criticises culture of spin and tweeting in modern politics”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- How on earth are we supposed to hold our heads high as the ‘mother of parliaments’ when we allow to continue the practice of almost openly buying a seat in parliament?
- Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
- Near-synonym: Big One
- 1991, January 17, Saddam Hussein, Broadcast on Baghdad state radio.
- The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun.
- (dated, when followed by a surname) A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
- Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.
- (dated) A term of address for one's wife.
- 1887 April 2, E. V. Wilson, “Uncle Dave”, in The Current, volume 7, number 172, page 432:
- A few minutes later we were all seated comfortably, Uncle Dave and mother, as he called his wife, myself and my husband, in the split-bottomed wooden chairs, on the vine-covered porch. / “Is Bethel a Methodist Church?” I asked. / Uncle Dave looked quizzically at his wife. “Do you hear that, mother?” he said.
- 1922, Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, page 152:
- On some days as he got near the house he would call out to his wife: / “Almighty Moses, Martha! who left the sprinkler on the grass?” / On other days he would call to her from quite a little distance off: “Hullo, mother! Got any supper for a hungry man?”
- 1944, Walter Hackett, For the Duration: A Play for Junior and Senior High Schools, page 8:
- (Mr. Hill enters. He crosses to Wife.) / Mr. Hill: Hello, mother. […] How are you? / Mrs. Hill: Nothing wrong, dear, I hope.
- (figuratively) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
- (figuratively) Any person or entity which performs mothering.
- Hypernym: parent
- Hyponym: surrogate mother
- Dregs, lees; a stringy, mucilaginous or film- or membrane-like substance (consisting of a culture of acetobacters) which develops in fermenting alcoholic liquids (such as wine, or cider), and turns the alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air.
- Hyponyms: mother of vinegar; starter
- pieces of mother ; adding mother to vinegar
- (rail transport) A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
- The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
- The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
- (obsolete) Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
- c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
- O how this mother ſwels vp toward my hart […]
- 1665, Robert Lovel, Pambotanologia sive Enchiridion botanicum, page 484:
- T.V. dicusseth tumors and mollifieth them, helps inflammations, rising of the mother and the epilepsie being burnt.
- 1666, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian Enlarged, page 49:
- The Root hereof taken with Zedoary and Angelică, or without them, helps the rising of the Mother.
- 1979, Thomas R. Forbes, “The changing face of death in London”, in Charles Webster, editor, Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century, published 1979, page 128:
- St Botolph's parish records ascribed three deaths to 'mother', an old name for the uterus.
- A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.
- Hypernym: master copy
- (Stan Twitter, originally drag slang) A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or community; see also: serve cunt
Synonyms
- (one’s female parent): See also Thesaurus:mother
- (most significant thing): father, grandfather, granddaddy
- (of or pertaining to the mother, such as metropolis): metro-
Antonyms
Hypernyms
- (a female parent): parent
Coordinate terms
- (a female parent): father
Derived terms
- adoptive mother
- allomother
- and his mother
- antimother
- babymother
- baby mother
- beemother
- be mother
- biomother
- birthmother
- birth mother
- bonus mother
- brother from another mother
- bunny mother
- camp mother
- co-mother
- co-mother-in-law
- corn mother
- cow-mother
- den mother
- do you kiss your mother with that mouth
- earth mother
- eldermother
- eldmother
- everybody and his mother
- everybody and their mother
- everyone and his mother
- everyone and their mother
- face only a mother could love
- face that only a mother could love
- foremother
- foster mother
- founding mother
- fuck your mother
- godmother
- go fuck your mother
- gold star mother
- go tell your mother she wants you
- grandmother
- great-grandmother
- holy mother of based
- housemother
- kangaroo mother care
- like a mother hawk
- manther
- megaspore mother cell
- mermother
- milf
- milk mother
- milk-mother
- mismother
- mother abscess
- mother and baby unit
- mother-bird
- motherboard
- mother bomb
- mother cell
- motherchucker
- mother church
- Mother City
- mother country
- mothercraft
- motherdom
- mother dough
- Mother Earth
- motherer
- motherese
- motherfather
- mother figure
- motherfouler
- mother fucker
- mother-fucker
- motherfucker
- motherfucking
- motherful
- mother goddess
- mother-hen
- mother hen
- mother heroine
- mother hive
- mother-hive
- motherhood
- motherhouse
- motherhumper
- Mothering Sunday
- mother-in-law
- mother-in-law apartment
- mother-in-law sandwich
- mother-in-law seat
- mother-in-law's tongue
- mother-in-law style
- motherish
- motherism
- motherist
- motherkin
- motherkins
- motherland
- mother language
- motherless
- motherlike
- motherline
- motherling
- mother liquor
- motherload
- mother-lode
- mother lode
- motherlove
- motherlover
- motherloving
- motherly
- mother may I
- motherment
- mother-naked
- mother naked
- motherness
- mother of all
- mother of chapel
- mother of coal
- mother of millions
- mother of pearl
- mother-of-pearl
- mother-of-pearl cloud
- mother of the nation
- mother of thousands
- mother-of-thyme
- mother of vinegar
- mother-out-law
- mother plant
- Mother Russia
- mother sauce
- mother sauces
- Mother's Day
- mother ship
- mother's milk
- mothersome
- mother-spot
- mother superior
- mother-to-be
- mother-tongue
- mother tongue
- mother up
- motherward
- mother-wit
- mother wit
- mother world
- motherwort
- mothery
- my very educated mother just served us nachos
- my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas
- my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins
- my very educated mother just served us noodles
- my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
- necessity is the mother of innovation
- necessity is the mother of invention
- nonmother
- only a mother could love
- othermother
- overmother
- queen mother
- refrigerator mother
- she's the cat's mother
- single mother
- stage mother
- step-mother
- stepmother
- surrogate mother
- sweet Mary mother of God
- sweet mother of God
- sweet mother of Jesus
- sweet mother of Moses
- sweet mother of pearl
- tiger mother
- unmother
- welfare mother
- wolf-mother
- you kiss your mother with that mouth
- your mother
Related terms
Etymologically related
Descendants
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English modren, from the noun (see above).
Verb
mother (third-person singular simple present mothers, present participle mothering, simple past and past participle mothered)
- (chiefly transitive) To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)
- 1998, Nina Revoyr, The Necessary Hunger: A Novel, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 101:
- Q's sister, Debbie, had mothered two kids by the time she was twenty, with neither of the fathers in sight.
- 2010, Lynette Joseph-Bani, The Biblical Journey of Slavery: From Egypt to the Americas, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 51:
- Zilpah, Leah's maid, mothered two sons for Jacob, Gad and Asher. Leah became pregnant once more and had two more sons, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah, thus Leah had seven children for Jacob.
- (transitive) To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.
- c. 1900, O. Henry, An Adjustment of Nature:
- She had seen fewer years than any of us, but she was of such superb Evehood and simplicity that she mothered us from the beginning.
- (transitive) To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).
- mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine
- (intransitive, of an alcohol) To develop mother.
- 1968, Evelyn Berckman, The Heir of Starvelings, page 172:
- Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.
- 2013, Richard Dauenhauer, Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 1963-2013, page 94:
- Your lamp
was always polished, wick
trimmed, waiting; yet the bridegroom
somehow never came. Summer dust
settled in the vineyard. Grapes
were harvested; your parents
crushed and pressed them, but the wine
mothered.
Translations
to treat as a mother would be expected to
|
References
- American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company 2003.
Etymology 3
Alternative forms
Noun
mother (plural mothers)
- (euphemistic, mildly vulgar, slang) Motherfucker.
- 1976, Leroy Green, Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey (lyrics and music), “Disco Inferno”, in Disco Inferno, performed by The Trammps, track 4:
- (Burn, baby, burn) Disco inferno / (Burn, baby, burn) Burn the mother down
- 1989 December 19, Slim Randles, “Entrepreneur Hopes Luminaria Delivery Service Catches On”, in The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 2:
- Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right?
- 2011, Beyoncé Knowles (lyrics and music), “Run the World (Girls)”, in 4:
- Who run this mother
- (euphemistic, colloquial) A striking example. (Appears as "mother of a(n) __".)
- 1964, Richard L. Newhafer, The last tallyho:
- November, 1943 If ever, Cortney Anders promised himself, I get out of this mother of a thunderstorm there is a thing I will do if it is the last act of my life.
- 1980, Chester Anderson, Fox & hare: the story of a Friday night, page 5:
- Some hot night there's gonna be one mother of a riot down here. Just wait." He'd been saying the same thing since 1958, five years of crying wolf.
- 2004 Nov, Rajnar Vajra, “The Ghost Within”, in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, volume 124, number 11, page 8:
- Basically, we wind up with a program. One mother of a complex application.
- 2006, Elizabeth Robinson, The true and outstanding adventures of the Hunt sisters:
- Josh, whose fleshy face resembles a rhino's - beady wide-set eyes blinking between a mother of a snout
Synonyms
- MF, mofo, motherfucker, mutha
Translations
motherfucker — see motherfucker
Etymology 4
Coined from moth by analogy to mouser.
Pronunciation
Noun
mother (plural mothers)
- Alternative form of moth-er
References
- “mother, n.2”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2022.
Further reading
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mother”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
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