founding mother

noun
/ˌfaʊndɪŋ ˈmʌðə/UK/ˌfaʊndɪŋ ˈmʌðɚ/US

Etymology

From founding (“who or that founds (establishes, starts) or founded”) + mother, modelled after founding father.

  1. derived from *muþraz — “sediment
  2. inherited from *méh₂tēr
  3. inherited from *mōdēr
  4. inherited from *mōder
  5. inherited from mōdor
  6. inherited from moder
  7. compounded as founding mother — “founding + mother

Definitions

  1. A woman who founded (established or started) something.

    • She (Audrey Lorde) is a member of the founding collective of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and a founding mother of SISA, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa.
    • There could even be a case made for treating Jane Harrison as a founding mother of social science (Beard, 2000).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for founding mother. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA