different between mother vs mulier

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?ð?(?)/, [?m?ð?(?)]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?ð?/
• Rhymes: -?ð?(?)
• Hyphenation: moth?er

Etymology 1

From Middle English moder, from Old English m?dor, from Proto-Germanic *m?d?r, from Proto-Indo-European *méh?t?r. Superseded non-native Middle English mere (“mother”) borrowed from Old French mere (“mother”). Doublet of mater.

Alternative forms

• mither (Scotland and Northern England)

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. A (human) female who has given birth to a baby
2. A human female who parents an adopted or fostered child
3. A human female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
4. A pregnant female, possibly as a shortened form of mother-to-be.
   • 1991, Susan Faludi, The Undeclared War Against American Women:

     The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.

5. A female parent of an animal.

6. (figuratively) A female ancestor.
   • 1525, William Tyndale, Bible, Genesis, 3, xx:

     And Ada^[Adam] called his wyfe Heua^[Eve] because she was the mother of all that lyveth

7. (figuratively) A source or origin.
   • 1606, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3, 1866, George Steevens (editor), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, page 278:

     Alas, poor country: / Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot / Be call'd our mother, but our grave:

   • 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.

8. 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.

9. (when followed by a surname) A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.

10. (figuratively) Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
11. (figuratively) 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. The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
13. The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
14. (obsolete) Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
    • 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 Angelic?, 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 (1979), page 128:

      St Botolph's parish records ascribed three deaths to 'mother', an old name for the uterus.

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

Related terms

Derived terms

Translations

See mother/translations § Noun.

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)

1. (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.

2. (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.

Translations

References

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

Etymology 3

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *muþraz (“sediment”), perhaps through intermediate Middle Dutch modder (“filth, dregs”).

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. 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.

Verb

mother (third-person singular simple present mothers, present participle mothering, simple past and past participle mothered)

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

   mothered oil / vinegar / wine

2. (intransitive, of an alcohol) To develop mother.

Etymology 4

Clipping of motherfucker

Alternative forms

• mutha

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. (euphemistic, mildly vulgar, slang) Motherfucker.
2. (euphemistic, colloquial) A striking example.

Synonyms

• MF, mofo, motherfucker, mutha

Translations

Etymology 5

Coined from moth by analogy to mouser.

Pronunciation

• see moth-er

Noun

mother (plural mothers)

1. Alternative form of moth-er

References

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “mother”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• thermo-

Middle English

Noun

mother

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of moder

English

Etymology

From Latin mulier (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mju?.l??/

Noun

mulier (plural muliers)

1. (law, historical) Lawful issue born in wedlock, in distinction from an elder brother born of the same parents before their marriage.
   • 1908, Alfred John Horwood, Luke Owen Pike, Year books of the reign of King Edward the Third: Volume 15

     Or suppose an inquest were taken between us, and it were found that they are muliers, for which reason the voucher stood, and they came and pleaded the same exception to escape from warranting as heirs, then two inquests would be taken […]

2. (obsolete) A woman; a wife or mother.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blount to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowell to this entry?)

Related terms

• muliebrity

Anagrams

• Muriel

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *moljes, of uncertain origin; it has been proposed that it might derive from mollior, comparative of mollis (“soft, tender”), while others propose it might be akin to mulgere and therefore mean “the milk-giver”

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?m?li?r]
• (Vulgar) IPA^(key): /m??l?.?r/, [m????i??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?mu?li?r]

Noun

mulier f (genitive mulieris); third declension

1. a woman, female

   Synonyms: f?mina, (hapax, mentioning, Old Latin) vira
2. (by extension) a wife

   Synonym: uxor

3. (figuratively) a coward, poltroon
4. (Medieval Latin) a virgin adult

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Usage notes

Nota bene: A mulier was a woman who was married in contrast with a virgo (“unmarried woman of a marriageable age”). Thus, if a noble young girl of age 12 got married, she would be called a mulier even though by today's standards, we would not call a pre-teen girl a "woman".In contrast, if a common young woman of age 19 or 21 was still unmarried, she often was still called a virgo despite being much older than that very young noble girl married right after bleeding for the first time.

Clearly, if an older woman for whatever reason was not married off, she could be called a mulier too, so it is not a term used exclusively for married women.

Derived terms

Descendants

References

• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mulier in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette