mother

views updated Jun 27 2018

mother the word is of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mater and Greek mētēr.
like mother, like daughter proverbial saying, early 14th century; the ultimate allusion is a biblical one, to Ezekiel 16:44, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter’. (Compare like father, like son.)
Mother Church the Church considered as a final arbiter.
Mother Earth the earth considered as the source of all its living beings and inanimate things, a phrase representing a personification recorded from the mid 16th century.
mother goddess a mother-figure deity, a central figure of many early nature cults where maintenance of fertility was of prime religious importance. Examples of such goddesses include Isis, Astarte, Cybele, and Demeter.
Mother Goose an old woman said to be the source of traditional nursery rhymes; she is often depicted as flying on the back of a gander. The name first appears in the title of Mother Goose's Melody; or Sonnets from the Cradle, published by John Newbery in 1781, but probably compiled around 1760. The ultimate origin is likely to be a fairy tale by Charles Perrault, Contes de ma mère l'oye [Tales of Mother Goose], a French expression meaning ‘old wives' tale’. The American tradition that the real Mother Goose was an Elizabeth Goose, an inhabitant of Boston, is not substantiated.
Mother of God a name given to the Virgin Mary (as mother of the divine Christ).
the mother of mischief is no bigger than a midge's wing the origin of difficulties can be very small; proverbial saying, early 17th century.
Mother of Parliaments the British parliament, an expression coined by the English liberal politician and reformer John Bright (1811–89).
Mother-of-pearl a smooth shining iridescent substance forming the inner layer of the shell of some molluscs, especially oysters and abalones, used in ornamentation.
Mother's Day a day of the year on which mothers are particularly honoured by their children. In North America it is the second Sunday in May; in Britain it has become another term for Mothering Sunday.
Mother Shipton a legendary English seer said to have lived in the 16th century; the earliest reference to her is found in an anonymous tract of 1641, claiming that she had foretold the deaths of Cardinal Wolsey and others, as well as making other predictions. The pamphlet was widely circulated, and Mother Shipton's prophetic powers became proverbial.

Her prophecies were subsequently frequently reprinted and added to; a version in 1862 included some verses (actually written by Charles Hindley) implying that she had foretold the invention of the steam-engine, the electric telegraph, and the end of the world (in 1881).

Her name has been given to a day-flying European moth with a marking on the wing that is said to resemble the crone-like profile of the seer.

See also earth mother, Great Mother at great, mother's milk, Old Mother Hubbard at old, praise the child and you make love to the mother.

mother

views updated Jun 11 2018

moth·er / ˈmə[voicedth]ər/ • n. 1. a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth. ∎  a person who provides the care and affection normally associated with a female parent: my adoptive mother. ∎  a female animal in relation to its offspring: [as adj.] a mother penguin. ∎ archaic (esp. as a form of address) an elderly woman. ∎  (Mother, Mother Superior, or Reverend Mother) (esp. as a title or form of address) the head of a female religious community. ∎  [as adj.] denoting an institution or organization from which more recently founded institutions of the same type derive: the mother church. ∎ fig. something that is the origin of or stimulus for something else: the wish was the mother of the deed. ∎ inf. an extreme example or very large specimen of something: I got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams.2. vulgar slang short for motherfucker.• v. [tr.] 1. [often as n.] (mothering) bring up (a child) with care and affection: the art of mothering. ∎  look after kindly and protectively, sometimes excessively so: she felt mothered by her older sister.2. dated give birth to.DERIVATIVES: moth·er·hood / -ˌhoŏd/ n.moth·er·less adj.moth·er·less·ness n.moth·er·like / -ˌlīk/ adj. & adv.ORIGIN: Old English mōdor, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch moeder and German Mutter, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mater and Greek mētēr.

Mother

views updated Jun 11 2018

281. Mother

See also 77. CHILDREN ; 153. FATHER ; 307. PARENTS ; 327. PREGNANCY .

matriarchy
a system of social order wherein final authority is vested in the mother or eldest female and in which descent is reckoned in the female line. matriarchal , adj.
matricentric
tending to move toward or centering upon the mother.
matricide
1. the killing of ones mother.
2. one who has killed his mother. matricidal , adj.
matriliny
tracing of descent through the mothers side of a family. matrilinear , adj.
momism
an excessive attachment and devotion of children to their mothers, resulting in a childs dependence and failure to achieve emotional emancipation.

mother

views updated May 23 2018

mother1
A. female parent OE.; term of address to an elderly woman; applied to the B. V. M. XIV; head of community of nuns XVII.

B. † womb XIV; † hysteria XV. OE. mōdor = OS. mōdar (Du. moeder), OHG. muotar (G. mutter), ON. móðir (wanting in Gothic):- Gmc. *mar- :- IE. *māter-, whence also L. māter, Gr. mātēr, mḗtēr, OSl. mati, OIr. māthir, Skr. mātā. Important collocations are: m. country (XVI), after F. terre mère; m. earth (XVI), cf. L. Terra Mater, taken as a goddess; m. land (XVIII); m. tongue (XIV), in which mother is orig. uninflected g.
Hence vb. be a mother to. XVI. Mothering Sunday, Midlent Sunday, so called from the custom of going a-mothering (XVII), i.e. visiting parents, on that day. motherly OE. mōdorliċ.

mother

views updated May 14 2018

mother2 † dregs, scum XVI; (in full m. of vinegar) mucilaginous substance produced in vinegar by fermentation XVII. corr. in form and sense to MDu. moeder (mod. moer), G. mutter; perh. identical with prec.; the orig. notion may have been that the substance was a portion of the ‘mother’ or original crude substance.
So also in mother-of-pearl iridescent inner layer of shells. XVI.

Mother

views updated May 14 2018

MOTHER

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