mother

Etymology 1

From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Superseded non-native Middle English mere (“mother”) borrowed from Old French mere (“mother”). Doublet of mater. 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.

noun

1. A female parent">parent, sometimes especially 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; 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. 1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son
   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). 2005, Trudelle Thomas, Spirituality in the Mother Zone: Staying Centered, Finding God, Paulist Press, page 41
3. A pregnant female, possibly as a shortened form of 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. 1991, Susan Faludi, The Undeclared War Against American Women
   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. (Can we date this quote?), Multiplicity Yours: Cloning, Stem Cell Research, and Regenerative Medicine
   If the cat to be cloned is female, the nucleus donor cat could also be used as the surrogate mother instead of another cat. 2023-01-16, Reinhard Renneberg, Biotechnology for Beginners, Academic Press, page 317
4. A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
5. (figurative) A female ancestor.
6. (figurative) A source or origin.
   The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
   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. 1844, Thomas Arnold, Fragment on the Church, volume 1, page 17
   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? 2013-10-31, Rowena Mason, quoting David Steel, “Lord Steel criticises culture of spin and tweeting in modern politics”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
   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.
   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. 2 April 1887, E. V. Wilson, “Uncle Dave”, in The Current, volume 7, number 172, page 432
   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?” 1922, Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, page 152
   (Mr. Hill enters. He crosses to Wife.) / Mr. Hill: Hello, mother. […] How are you? / Mrs. Hill: Nothing wrong, dear, I hope. 1944, Walter Hackett, For the Duration: A Play for Junior and Senior High Schools, page 8
10. (figurative) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
11. (figurative) 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.
12. Dregs, lees; a stringy, mucilaginous or film- or membrane-like substance (consisting 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
13. (rail transport) A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
14. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
15. The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
16. (obsolete) Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
    T.V. dicusseth tumors and mollifieth them, helps inflammations, rising of the mother and the epilepsie being burnt. 1665, Robert Lovel, Pambotanologia sive Enchiridion botanicum, page 484
    The Root hereof taken with Zedoary and Angelică, or without them, helps the rising of the Mother. 1666, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian Enlarged, page 49
    St Botolph's parish records ascribed three deaths to 'mother', an old name for the uterus. 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
17. A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.

Etymology 2

From Middle English modren, from the noun (see above).

verb

1. (chiefly transitive) 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. 1998, Nina Revoyr, The Necessary Hunger: A Novel, Macmillan, page 101
   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. 2010, Lynette Joseph-Bani, The Biblical Journey of Slavery: From Egypt to the Americas, AuthorHouse, page 51
2. (transitive) 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. c. 1900, O. Henry, An Adjustment of Nature
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.
   Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered. 1968, Evelyn Berckman, The Heir of Starvelings, page 172
   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. 2013, Richard Dauenhauer, Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 1963-2013, page 94

Etymology 3

Clipping of motherfucker

noun

1. (euphemistic, mildly vulgar, slang) Motherfucker.
   Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right? 19 December 1989, Slim Randles, “Entrepreneur Hopes Luminaria Delivery Service Catches On”, in The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 2
   Who run this mother 2011, Beyoncé Knowles (lyrics and music), “Run the World (Girls)”, in 4
2. (euphemistic, colloquial) A striking example.
   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. 1964, Richard L. Newhafer, The last tallyho
   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. 1980, Chester Anderson, Fox & hare: the story of a Friday night, page 5
   Basically, we wind up with a program. One mother of a complex application. 2004 Nov, Rajnar Vajra, “The Ghost Within”, in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, volume 124, number 11, page 8
   Josh, whose fleshy face resembles a rhino's - beady wide-set eyes blinking between a mother of a snout 2006, Elizabeth Robinson, The true and outstanding adventures of the Hunt sisters

Etymology 4

table Coined from moth by analogy to mouser.

noun

1. Alternative form of moth-er