# mother
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmʌðə/
** Audio (Received Pronunciation):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmʌðɚ/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /ˈmɐðə/
** Audio (General Australian):(file)
* (Northern England) IPA: /ˈmʊðə/
* (Ireland) IPA: /ˈmʊðəɹ/
* (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /ˈmʌðəɹ/
* Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: moth‧er

### Etymology 1

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.

#### Alternative forms

* mither (Scotland and Northern England)

#### Noun

mother (plural mothers)
* A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).
    Hyponym: matron
    I am visiting my mother today.
    The lioness was a mother of four cubs.
* A female who has given birth to a baby; this person in relation to her child or children.
    Hyponym: matron
    My sister-in-law has just become a mother for the first time.
    He had something of his mother in him.
** 1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son: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.
** 2005, Trudelle Thomas, Spirituality in the Mother Zone: Staying Centered, Finding God, Paulist Press, →ISBN, page 41: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).
* A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
    Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
** 1991, Susan Faludi, The Undeclared War Against American Women:The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.
** 2006, Multiplicity Yours: Cloning, Stem Cell Research, and Regenerative Medicine, →ISBN: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.
** 2023 January 16, Reinhard Renneberg, Biotechnology for Beginners, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 317:If the cat to be cloned is female, the nucleus donor cat could also be used as the surrogate mother instead of another cat.
* A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
    Synonym: biological mother
* (figuratively) A female ancestor.
    Coordinate term: matriarch
** 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Genesis iij:[20], folio iiij, verso:And Adã called his wyfe Heua⸝ becauſe ſhe was the mother of all that lyveth
* (figuratively) A source or origin.
    Near-synonym: matrix
    The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
** c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 147, column 1:Alas poore Countrey, / Almoſt affraid to know it ſelfe. It cannot / Be call’d our Mother, but our Graue;
** 1844, Thomas Arnold, Fragment on the Church, volume 1, page 17: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.
** 2013 October 31, Rowena Mason, quoting David Steel, “Lord Steel criticises culture of spin and tweeting in modern politics”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN: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?
* 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.
* (dated, when followed by a surname) A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
    Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.
* (dated) A term of address for one's wife.
** 1887 April 2, E. V. Wilson, “Uncle Dave”, in The Current, volume 7, number 172, page 432: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.
** 1922, Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town‎, page 152: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?”
** 1944, Walter Hackett, For the Duration: A Play for Junior and Senior High Schools, page 8:(Mr. Hill enters. He crosses to Wife.) / Mr. Hill: Hello, mother. […] How are you? / Mrs. Hill: Nothing wrong, dear, I hope.
* (figuratively) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
    Near-synonyms: matron, matriarch
* (figuratively) Any person or entity which performs mothering.
    Hypernym: parent
    Hyponym: surrogate mother
** 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.
* 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.
    Hyponyms: mother of vinegar; starter
    pieces of mother ;   adding mother to vinegar
* (rail transport) A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
* The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
* The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
* (obsolete) Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
** c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC,:O how this mother ſwels vp toward my hart […]
** 1665, Robert Lovel, Pambotanologia sive Enchiridion botanicum, page 484:T.V. dicusseth tumors and mollifieth them, helps inflammations, rising of the mother and the epilepsie being burnt.
** 1666, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian Enlarged, page 49:The Root hereof taken with Zedoary and Angelică, or without them, helps the rising of the Mother.
** 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:St Botolph's parish records ascribed three deaths to 'mother', an old name for the uterus.
* A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.
    Hypernym: master copy
* (Stan Twitter, originally drag slang) A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or community; see also: serve cunt

##### Synonyms

* (one’s female parent): See also Thesaurus:mother
* (most significant thing): father, grandfather, granddaddy
* (of or pertaining to the mother, such as metropolis): metro-

##### Antonyms

* (with regards to gender) father
* (with regards to ancestry) daughter, son, child, offspring

##### Hypernyms

* (a female parent): parent

##### Coordinate terms

* (a female parent): father

##### Derived terms

* adoptive mother
* allomother
* and his mother
* antimother
* babymother
* baby mother
* beemother
* be mother
* biomother
* birthmother
* birth mother
* 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
* 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
* grandmother
* great-grandmother
* holy mother of based
* housemother
* kangaroo mother care
* like a mother hawk
* manther
* megaspore mother cell
* mermother
* milf
* milk-mother
* milk mother
* mismother
* mother abscess
* mother and baby unit
* mother-bird
* motherboard
* mother bomb
* mother cell
* motherchucker
* mother church
* mother city
* Mother City
* mother country
* mothercraft
* motherdom
* mother dough
* Mother Earth
* motherer
* motherese
* motherfather
* mother figure
* motherfouler
* motherfucker
* mother-fucker
* mother fucker
* motherfucking
* motherful
* mother goddess
* mother hen
* mother-hen
* mother heroine
* mother-hive
* mother hive
* motherhood
* motherhouse
* motherhumper
* Mothering Sunday
* mother-in-law
* mother-in-law apartment
* mother-in-law sandwich
* mother-in-law seat
* mother-in-law's tongue
* mother-in-law style
* motherish
* motherism
* motherist
* motherkin
* motherkins
* motherland
* mother language
* motherless
* motherlike
* motherline
* motherling
* mother liquor
* motherload
* mother lode
* mother-lode
* motherlove
* motherlover
* motherloving
* motherly
* mother may I
* motherment
* Mother Monster
* mother-naked
* mother naked
* motherness
* mother of all
* mother of chapel
* mother of coal
* mother of millions
* mother-of-pearl
* mother of pearl
* mother-of-pearl cloud
* mother of Satan
* Mother of Sorrows
* mother of the nation
* mother of thousands
* mother-of-thyme
* mother of vinegar
* mother-out-law
* mother plant
* Mother Russia
* mother sauce
* mother sauces
* Mother's Day
* mother ship
* mother's milk
* mothersome
* mother-spot
* mother superior
* mother-to-be
* mother-tongue
* mother tongue
* mother up
* motherward
* mother wit
* mother-wit
* mother world
* motherwort
* mothery
* my very educated mother just served us nachos
* my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas
* my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins
* my very educated mother just served us noodles
* my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
* necessity is the mother of innovation
* necessity is the mother of invention
* nonmother
* only a mother could love
* othermother
* overmother
* queen mother
* refrigerator mother
* she's the cat's mother
* single mother
* Sorrowful Mother
* stage mother
* stepmother
* step-mother
* surrogate mother
* sweet Mary mother of God
* sweet mother of God
* sweet mother of Jesus
* sweet mother of Moses
* sweet mother of pearl
* tiger mother
* unmother
* welfare mother
* wolf-mother
* you kiss your mother with that mouth
* your mother

##### Related terms

* material
* maternal
* maternity
* matriculate
* matrimony
* matrix
* matter

##### Descendants

* Australian Kriol: motha
* → Japanese: マザー (mazā)
* → Korean: 마더 (madeo)

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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

#### Verb

mother (third-person singular simple present mothers, present participle mothering, simple past and past participle mothered)
* (chiefly transitive) To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)
** 1998, Nina Revoyr, The Necessary Hunger: A Novel, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 101:Q's sister, Debbie, had mothered two kids by the time she was twenty, with neither of the fathers in sight.
** 2010, Lynette Joseph-Bani, The Biblical Journey of Slavery: From Egypt to the Americas, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 51: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.
* (transitive) To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.
** c. 1900, O. Henry, An Adjustment of Nature: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.
* (transitive) To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).
    mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine
* (intransitive, of an alcohol) To develop mother.
** 1968, Evelyn Berckman, The Heir of Starvelings, page 172:Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.
** 2013, Richard Dauenhauer, Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 1963-2013, page 94: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.

##### Translations
#### References

* American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company 2003.

### Etymology 3

Clipping of motherfucker

#### Alternative forms

* mutha

#### Noun

mother (plural mothers)
* (euphemistic, mildly vulgar, slang) Motherfucker.
** 1976, Leroy Green, Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey (lyrics and music), “Disco Inferno”, in Disco Inferno, performed by The Trammps, track 4:(Burn, baby, burn) Disco inferno / (Burn, baby, burn) Burn the mother down
** 1989 December 19, Slim Randles, “Entrepreneur Hopes Luminaria Delivery Service Catches On”, in The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 2:Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right?
** 2011, Beyoncé Knowles (lyrics and music), “Run the World (Girls)”, in 4‎:Who run this mother
* (euphemistic, colloquial) A striking example. (Appears as "mother of a(n) __".)
** 1964, Richard L. Newhafer, The last tallyho: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.
** 1980, Chester Anderson, Fox & hare: the story of a Friday night, page 5: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.
** 2004 Nov, Rajnar Vajra, “The Ghost Within”, in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, volume 124, number 11, page 8:Basically, we wind up with a program. One mother of a complex application.
** 2006, Elizabeth Robinson, The true and outstanding adventures of the Hunt sisters:Josh, whose fleshy face resembles a rhino's - beady wide-set eyes blinking between a mother of a snout

##### Synonyms

* MF, mofo, motherfucker, mutha

##### Translations
### Etymology 4

Coined from moth by analogy to mouser.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɒθə(ɹ)/

#### Noun

mother (plural mothers)
* Alternative form of moth-er

#### References

* ↑ “mother, n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2022.

### Further reading

* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “mother”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* thermo-

## Middle English
### Noun

mother
* (Late Middle English) Alternative form of moder

## Scots
### Noun

mother
* Alternative form of mither

### References

* “mother, n.1.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.