# mater
## English
### Etymology 1

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere. Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmeɪtə/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ˈmeɪtɚ/, /ˈmɑtɚ/
* Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

#### Noun

mater (plural maters or matres)
* (British, slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous) Mother.
    Coordinate term: pater
** 1919 June 14, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 50, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter XX, page 57, column 1:Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.
** 1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32:And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.
** 1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss (lyrics and music), “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red:Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later
** 1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17:“Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”
* (anatomy) A meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.

##### Related terms

* alma mater
* arachnoid mater
* dura mater
* mater dolorosa
* mater lectionis
* matri-
* matrix
* pia mater
* stabat mater

### Etymology 2

From mate +‎ -er.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmeɪtə/
* (US) IPA: /ˈmeɪtɚ/
* Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

#### Noun

mater (plural maters)
* (biology) Someone or something that mates.

### Etymology 3

See 'mater.

#### Pronunciation

* (US) IPA: /ˈmeɪtɚ/
* Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

#### Noun

mater (plural maters)
* Alternative form of 'mater (“tomato”)
** 2015, Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover, →ISBN, page 28:"A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks.

##### Derived terms

* mater sammich

### References

* 1 2 3 4 5 “mater, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision; March 2009)
* 1 2 3 4 “mater, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft entry; March 2001)

### Anagrams

* METAR, Marte, armet, metra, ramet, tamer, terma, trema, tréma

## Czech
### Etymology

Derived from Latin māter.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmatɛr]
* Rhymes: -atɛr

### Noun

mater f (indeclinable)
* title of an abbess

#### Related terms

* imatrikulace
* imatrikulovat
* materialismus
* materialista
* materialistický
* materializovat
* materiál
* maternální
* maternita
* matérie
* matriarchální
* matriarchát
* matrice
* matrika
* matrikář
* matrikářka
* matrimoniální
* matrimonium
* matrix
* matrona

#### See also

* matka

### Further reading

* “mater”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
* “mater”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
* “mater”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ma.te/
* Audio (Paris):(file)

### Etymology 1

From mat (“mate”) +‎ -er.

#### Verb

mater
* (transitive) to checkmate
* (figuratively, transitive) to suppress, quell (a revolution, person, insurrection)
** 1997, “L'Empire du côté obscur”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:Adapter ma technique à la manière du caméléon / Sans pitié pour mater la rébellion(please add an English translation of this quotation)

##### Conjugation
### Etymology 2

Uncertain, perhaps from Spanish mata (“bush”).

#### Verb

mater
* (slang, transitive) to ogle, to check out, to watch (e.g. an attractive person)
** 1997, “Demain, c’est loin”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:Mater les photos, majeur aujourd’hui, poto / Pas mal d’amis se sont déjà tués en moto(please add an English translation of this quotation)

##### Conjugation
### Further reading

* “mater”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### References

* ↑ Etymology and history of “mater”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* marte, trame, tramé, tréma

## Latin

Picture dictionary :
Network Diagram for Roman Extended Families
atavia
atavus
abavia
abavus
proavia
proavus
avia
/ ava māterna
avus māternus
avia
/ ava paterna
avus paternus
cōnsobrīna
/ mātruēlis
cōnsobrīnus
/ mātruēlis
patruēlis
patruēlis
mātertera
avunculus
amita
patruus
/ barbās
māter
pater
sobrīna
/neptis
/neptia
sobrīnus
/ nepōs
frātruēlis
/neptis
/neptia
nepōs
/frātruus
/frātruēlis
sorōrius
/marītus sorōris
soror
frāter
frātria
/ uxor frātris
socrus
socer
/patraster
socrus
socer
/patraster
soror uxōris
frāter uxōris
glōs
lēvir
uxor
/marīta
/coniunx
/nūpta
marītus
/coniunx
gener
/ fīliaster
fīlia
/ nāta
fīlius
/ nātus
nurus
/ fīliastra
prōgener
neptis
/neptia
nepōs
prōnurus
proneptis
pronepōs
abneptis
abnepōs :

### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *mātēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Cognate with Old English mōdor (English mother).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈmaː.ter/, [ˈmäːt̪ɛr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈma.ter/, [ˈmäːt̪er]
* Hyphenation: ma‧ter

### Noun

māter f (genitive mātris); third declension
* mother (female parent)
    Synonym: genetrīx
    Nē, māter; suam. ― Weave, mother; [so that] I [can] sew.
* mother (source, origin)
* matron of a house
* honorific title
* woman
* nurse
* motherland
* maternity, motherhood

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* alma māter
* māter lectiōnis
* mātercula
* māterfamiliās
* māternālis
* māternus
* mātertera
* mātrālis
* mātrēscō
* mātricīda
* mātrimōnium
* mātrīx
* mātrōna
* mātruēlis

#### Related terms

* māternitās
* mātrīcālis
* mātricīdium
* mātrīcula
* mātrīculārius
* mātrimōniālis
* mātrimus
* mātrōnālis
* mātrōnātus

#### Descendants

* Italo-Romance:
** Italian: madre
** Sicilian: matri
* North Italian:
** Friulian: mari
** Gallo-Italic:
*** Emilian: mare, mèr, mèdar, madra
*** Ligurian: moæ, mâre, mâje
*** Lombard: mader, madar, madra
*** Piedmontese: mare, mari, mèri
** Istriot: mare
** Ladin: mère
** Venetan: mare
* Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal: mâre
** Old French: mere, medre
*** Bourguignon: meire
*** Middle French: mere
**** French: mère
***** Haitian Creole: mè
*** Norman: mère, méthe
*** Walloon: mere
* Occitano-Romance:
** Catalan: mare
** Gascon: mair
** Occitan: maire
    Limousin: mair
* Ibero-Romance:
** Aragonese: mai
** Old Leonese:
*** Asturian: madre, ma
*** Extremaduran: mairi
*** Leonese: mai
*** Mirandese: mai, madre
** Old Galician-Portuguese: madre
*** Galician: madre
*** Portuguese: madre
*** Fala: mairi
** Old Galician-Portuguese: mãy
*** Fala: má
*** Galician: mai, nai
*** Portuguese: mãe (see there for further descendants)
** Old Spanish: madre
*** Ladino:
    Hebrew script: מאדרי
    Latin script: madre
*** Spanish: madre
**** → Tagalog: madre
* Borrowings:
** → English: mater
** → Ido: matro
*** → Esperanto: matro
** → Interlingua: matre
** → Middle English: matere
*** English: mater

#### See also

* mamma
* pater

### References

* “mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. son of such and such a father, mother: patre, (e) matre natus

## Middle English
### Noun

mater (plural maters)
* Alternative form of matere
** 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Morte Arthur]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, verso, lines 15–18:Than ſpake ẜ Gawayne And ſeyde brothir · ẜ Aggravayne I pray you and charge you meve no ſuch · maters no more a fore me fro wyte you well I woll nat be of youre counceyle //Then spoke Sir Gawain, and said, “Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye assured I will not be of your counsel.”

## Norman
### Verb

mater
* to kill

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Verb

mater
* present of mate

## Serbo-Croatian
### Noun

mater
* accusative singular of mati
* (by extension, regional) Alternative form of mati

### Anagrams

* trema, metra

## Slovak
### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mati.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmacɛr/

### Noun

mater f
* mother

#### Derived terms

* materčina
* materina dúška
* materinský
* materný
* materský
* materstvo

### Further reading

* “mater”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

## Welsh
### Etymology

From English matter.

### Noun

mater m (plural materion)
* matter, affair
    Synonyms: neges, busnes
* substance
    Synonyms: sylwedd, defnydd

#### Derived terms

* cyflwr mater (“state of matter”)
* gwrthfater (“antimatter”)
* mater tywyll (“dark matter”)
* materol (“material”)
* materydd (“philosophical materialist”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “mater”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies