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mother

noun
/ˈmʌð.ə/UK/ˈmʌðɚ/US/ˈmɐð.ə//ˈmɒθə(ɹ)/

Etymology

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.

  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

Definitions

  1. A female parent, especially of a human

    A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).

    • I am visiting my mother today.
    • The lioness was a mother of four cubs.

  2. A female who has given birth to a baby

    A female who has given birth to a baby; this person in relation to her child or children.

    • My sister-in-law has just become a mother for the first time.
    • He had something of his mother in him.
    • 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.

  3. A pregnant female

    A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.

    • Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
    • The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.
    • 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.
  4. ›+ 26 more definitions

    1. A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a…

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

    2. A female ancestor.

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

    3. A source or origin.

      • Near-synonym: matrix
      • The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
      • Alas poore Countrey, / Almoſt affraid to know it ſelfe. It cannot / Be call’d our Mother, but our Graue;

    4. 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.

    5. A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.

      • Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.

    6. A term of address for one's wife.

      • (Mr. Hill enters. He crosses to Wife.) / Mr. Hill: Hello, mother. […] How are you? / Mrs. Hill: Nothing wrong, dear, I hope.

    7. Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.

      • Near-synonyms: matron, matriarch

    8. Any person or entity which performs mothering.

      • 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.

    9. Dregs, lees

      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.

      • pieces of mother ;   adding mother to vinegar

    10. A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.

    11. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.

    12. The female superior or head of a religious house

      The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.

    13. Hysterical passion

      Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.

      • O how this mother ſwels vp toward my hart[…]
      • T.V. dicusseth tumors and mollifieth them, helps inflammations, rising of the mother and the epilepsie being burnt.
      • The Root hereof taken with Zedoary and Angelică, or without them, helps the rising of the Mother.

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

    15. A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or…

      A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or community; see also: serve cunt

    16. To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)

      • Q's sister, Debbie, had mothered two kids by the time she was twenty, with neither of the fathers in sight.
      • 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.

    17. To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child

      To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.

      • 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.

    18. To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and…

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

      • mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine

    19. To develop mother.

      • Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.
      • 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.

    20. Motherfucker.

      • (Burn, baby, burn) Disco inferno / (Burn, baby, burn) Burn the mother down
      • Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right?
      • Who run this mother

    21. A striking example. (Appears as "mother of a(n) __".)

      • 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.
      • 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.
      • Basically, we wind up with a program. One mother of a complex application.

    22. Alternative form of moth-er.

    23. One's mother.

    24. One of the triune goddesses of the Lady in Wicca alongside the Crone and Maiden and…

      One of the triune goddesses of the Lady in Wicca alongside the Crone and Maiden and representing a woman older than a girlish Maiden but younger than an aged Crone.

      • ...different stages of life as represented by our Lady as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, as well as our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.
      • The Lady is often thought of as having three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

    25. A title given to a nun or a priestess.

      • Mother Teresa Gertrude O’Sullivan, then Provincial, did not give higher education for Loreto nuns the same priority as had Mothers Gonzaga and Stanislaus.

    26. A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as…

      A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Mother Nature, Mother Russia, or Mother Earth.

The neighborhood

Derived

adoptive mother, allomother, and his mother, antimother, baby mother, babymother, beemother, bee mother, be mother, biomother, birth mother, birthmother, 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, drag mother, 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 · +146 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at mother. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01mother02child03son04relation05tone06gregorian07james08hebrew09abraham10hagar

A definitional loop anchored at mother. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at mother

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

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