мати

Forms

мати (mati) f, r-stem, Glagolitic ⰿⰰⱅⰻ^[1] Genitive матере, accusative матерь.^[2][3][4] Later Church Slavonic also has матерь as the nominative.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Slavic *mati (“mother”), genitive *matere, found in all the Slavic languages.^[6][2][1] The same word is Russian мать (matʹ), Ukrainian мати (máty), Serbo-Croatian mȁti, Slovene máti and Czech máti, though in most modern West and South Slavic languages the derivative *matъka has taken its place.^[6][2][7] With дъшти "daughter" it is the last remnant of the old r-stem declension in Slavic.^[6]

The word continues Proto-Balto-Slavic *mā́ˀtē and Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr, an old kinship term found in every Indo-European branch except Anatolian.^[1][6][2] Its cognates include Lithuanian mótė (“wife, mother”), Latvian māte, Old Prussian mūti, Ancient Greek μήτηρ (mḗtēr), Latin māter, Old Irish máthir, Old High German muoter and Albanian motër (“sister”).^[2][7][8] The -i of the nominative is usually explained as the regular Slavic outcome of the Indo-European ending, parallel to the accusative plural in -y.^[6] Explanations of the term itself usually split it into a first syllable, taken as a nursery word, and the suffix of agent nouns.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Gospels мати renders Ancient Greek μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”), as in ꙇ бѣ мт҃и ꙇс‹оусо›ва тоу “and the mother of Jesus was there” (J 2, 1, Zogr Mar As Achr Ostr).^[9] The SNSP counts more than three hundred occurrences in the oldest manuscripts, often written with an abbreviation under a titlo.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Besides the mother of a person, the word is used of the Mother of God, мати б‹о›жиѣ (Prag 1b 27), and figuratively, as in the Psalter's мати сіоно “mother Zion” (Ps 86, 5, Sin).^[9][10] In Bes it also renders Latin nutrix "nurse".^[9] The phrase мати градомъ “mother of cities” renders Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis) in Isaiah (Is 1, 26).^[9]

In later Church Slavonic мати and матерь are both used as the nominative, and Dyachenko records мати церквей “mother of churches” for the church of Jerusalem, from John of Damascus.^[5][3]

Timeline

• End of the 9th – beginning of the 10th century – the Euchologium Sinaiticum uses мати for μήτηρ.^[11]
• 14th century – the Serbian Athonite translation of Gregory of Nyssa uses it for μήτηρ.^[11]
• 1882–1885 – Giltebrandt lists its New Testament uses and notes матерь as the accusative.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. mother; for μήτηρ.^{[9][10][1][8]}
2. (figurative) Mother, source, nurse of something.^[9][10]

Word family

• матерьнь
• матерь
• матица
• матерьша
• прѣмати

Usage notes

Dyachenko also records a separate verb мати, a form of имати "to have".^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 303
3. ^ a b c Gil'tebrandt, P. A. (1882–1885), Spravočnyj i ob''jasnitel'nyj slovar' k Novomu Zavetu, 6 vols., Sankt-Peterburg
4. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller
5. ^ a b c D'jačenko, Grigorij (1899), Polnyj cerkovno-slavjanskij slovar', Moskva
6. ^ a b c d e f Havlová, Eva; Erhart, Adolf; Janyšková, Ilona (eds.) (1989–2022), Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského, 21 fascicles, Praha: Academia / Brno: Tribun EU, p. 457
7. ^ a b Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 2, 583–584
8. ^ a b Sadnik, Linda; Aitzetmüller, Rudolf (1955), Handwörterbuch zu den altkirchenslavischen Texten, Heidelberg: Winter / 's-Gravenhage: Mouton
9. ^ a b c d e f Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ a b c d Slovník nejstarších staroslověnských památek (digital ed., Gorazd, Slovanský ústav AV ČR, gorazd.org); cf. Cejtlin, R. M.; Večerka, R.; Blagova, É. (eds.) (1994), Staroslavjanskij slovar' (po rukopisjam X–XI vekov), Moskva: Russkij jazyk
11. ^ a b SlaVaComp Metaglossar Griechisch–Kirchenslavisch, Universität Freiburg, slavistik-portal.de