mother

See also: Mother and moth-er

English

WOTD – 3 April 2016

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌðə/

  • Audio (Received Pronunciation):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌðɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (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

Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr

Proto-Germanic *mōdēr

Proto-West Germanic *mōder

Old English mōdor

Middle English moder

English mother

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.

Alternative forms

• mither (Scotland and Northern England)

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. A female parent, especially of 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.

2. 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).

3. 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.

4. A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.

   Synonym: biological mother

5. (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:

     And Adã called his wyfe Heua⸝ becauſe ſhe was the mother of all that lyveth

6. (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^[1], →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?

7. 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.

8. (dated, when followed by a surname) A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.

   Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.

9. (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^[2], 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.

10. (figuratively) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.

    Near-synonyms: matron, matriarch

11. (figuratively) Any person or entity which performs mothering.

    Hypernym: parent

    Hyponym: surrogate mother

    • Judges 5:7, KJV.

      The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

    • Galatians 4:26, KJV.

      Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

13. 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

14. (rail transport) A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
15. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
16. The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
17. (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.

18. A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.

    Hypernym: master copy

19. (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

• (with regards to gender) father
• (with regards to ancestry) daughter, son, child, offspring

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

• material
• maternal
• maternity
• matriculate
• matrimony
• matrix
• matter

 

English terms prefixed with matri-

Descendants

• Australian Kriol: motha
• → Japanese: マザー (mazā)
• → Korean: 마더 (madeo)

Translations

See mother/translations § Noun.

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)

1. (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.

2. (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.

3. (transitive) To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).

   mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine

4. (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

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 待之如母 (Dàizhirúmǔ)

• Danish: være mor for (da), tage sig ordentlig af
• Dutch: bemoederen (nl), koesteren (nl)
• Finnish: olla äitinä
• French: materner (fr)
• German: bemuttern (de)
• Greek: ανατρέφω (el) (anatréfo), (informal) κανακεύω (el) (kanakévo)
• Hungarian: anyáskodik (vki fölött)
• Irish: máithrigh
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 母のように世話する (ははのようにせわする, haha no yō ni sewa suru), ^{(please verify)} 甘やかす (ja) (あまやかす, amayakasu)
• Sinhalese: මාතෘ (mātr̥)
• Swahili: mama (sw)
• Vietnamese: chăm sóc (vi), nuôi (vi), nuôi nấng (vi)
• Yiddish: מאַמען (mamen)

References

• American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company 2003.

Etymology 3

Clipping of motherfucker

Alternative forms

• mutha

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. (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^[3]:

     Who run this mother

2. (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

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɒθə(ɹ)/

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. Alternative form of moth-er

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mother”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• thermo-

Middle English

Noun

mother

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of moder

Scots

Noun

mother

1. Alternative form of mither

References

• “mother, n.1.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.