Etymologically
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Mutter

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmʊtər/, [ˈmʊtɐ][1]

Forms

Mutter f (genitive Mutter, plural Mütter, diminutive Mütterchen n or Mütterlein n or Mütterken n)[1] In Old and Middle High German the plural had no ending, muoter; the umlauted plural müeter appears in Middle High German, and Luther still wrote müttere beside mütter.[2] The short vowel comes from Central German mûter; it is recorded from the 15th century and prevailed in the 16th.[3][2] In the sense “nut for a bolt” the plural is Muttern.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German muoter, inherited from Old High German muoter, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, inherited from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr (“mother”).[4][5][1] The same word is Old Saxon mōdar, Old Frisian mōder, Old English mōdor (now English mother) and Old Norse móðir, with Dutch moeder and Swedish moder;[4][5][6] it is found in every Germanic language except Gothic, where the pet word Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌸𐌴𐌹 (aiþei) is used instead, as 𐌰𐍄𐍄𐌰 (atta) is for the father.[4][2]

It continues Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”), one of the oldest kinship terms, seen also in Sanskrit मातृ (mātṛ́), Ancient Greek μήτηρ (mḗtēr), Latin māter, Old Irish máthair, Old Church Slavonic мати (mati) and Latvian māte, and Lithuanian mótė (“wife”).[4][5][7] It is formed with the suffix of kinship terms seen in Vater, Bruder and Tochter, from the nursery word *mā that also underlies Mama;[5][7][8] the Grimms had instead thought of a root meaning “to measure out”, the mother as the one who apportions food in the house.[2]

The Germanic /d/ instead of the expected /þ/ shows that the stress had moved to the suffix already in Proto-Germanic, as in Sanskrit;[6] Kroonen takes this to be analogical to the word for “father”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German muoter is recorded from the third quarter of the 8th century, in glosses and then in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and other texts, meaning a person's own mother, an ancestress, an origin, and the womb.[3][9][10] Middle High German used it of people, animals and plants, and for a woman who instigated something.[3][11]

Semantic evolution

From the sense “womb”, rare in the modern language, comes Mutterkorn “ergot” (1721), a fungus named for its use against pains of the womb;[12][5][7] Pfeifer dates it to the 18th century.[5] Things that take in or enclose something were also called Mutter: in mining the rock casing, and in engineering the nut that takes the bolt, recorded by Frisch in 1741.[7][12] The Duden explains the nut by the image of the womb, Kluge by a sexual metaphor, as in the male and female parts of a plug.[7][4]

Muttersprache (1522) was taken from Middle Low German mōdersprāke (1424), probably after Medieval Latin lingua materna;[5][7] Paul dates Mutterkirche to 1378, Muttermal to 1557 and Mutterwitz to 1679.[12] Mutterseelenallein, in Adelung in 1777, rests on an older Mutterseele “human being”.[12][7] Proverbs include Vorsicht ist die Mutter der Weisheit, jokingly … der Porzellankiste (19th century).[12] Polish borrowed the word as mutra and muterka “nut” (1782), and Hungarian as muter “grandmother, old woman” (1840).[13]

Timeline

  • 3rd quarter of the 8th century – Old High German muoter appears in glosses.[3]
  • 1378 – Mutterkirche “mother church”.[12]
  • 1424 – Middle Low German mōdersprāke.[5]
  • 15th century – The short vowel of Mutter is first written.[3][2]
  • 1522 – Muttersprache appears in High German.[5]
  • 1557 – Muttermal “birthmark”.[12]
  • 1721 – Mutterkorn “ergot”.[12]
  • 1741 – Frisch records Mutter for the thread that takes a screw.[12]
  • 1777 – mutterseelenallein in Adelung.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mother, a woman who has given birth to one or more children: Ihre Mutter wohnt in Leipzig.[14][1]
  2. A woman who brings up children in the role of a mother.[14]
  3. (in some religious orders) The superior of a convent, also as a title: Mutter Oberin.[14]
  4. A female animal that has just had young.[14][15]
  5. (technology) A matrix, a mould for pressing records.[14][15]
  6. (jargon) Short for Muttergesellschaft: a parent company.[14][15]
  7. A nut that screws onto a bolt (plural Muttern).[1][15]

Word family

  • mütterlich
  • bemuttern
  • Muttersprache
  • Mutterkorn
  • Muttermal
  • Mutterwitz
  • mutterseelenallein
  • Muttersöhnchen
  • Muttergesellschaft
  • Schraubenmutter
  • Gebärmutter
  • Stiefmutter
  • Schwiegermutter
  • Mieder
  • Mama
  • Matrize
  • Metropole
  • English mother

Usage notes

Mutter Natur is nature personified, and bei Mutter Grün schlafen (colloquial) is to sleep in the open air.[14] In regional colloquial speech bei Muttern means “at home, at mother's”.[14] Kluge leaves open whether the Mutter of Essigmutter (mother of vinegar) is this word or rather Moder, and the Duden takes Mieder “bodice” as probably derived from it.[4][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2804
  3. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 655
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 643
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 573
  8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 230
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 2244
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org