godmother

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English godmoder,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English godmōdor,^[3][5][6][7] formed from Old English god (“God”) + mōdor (“mother”),^[3][8] that is, God and mother.^[9][10][7] The OED explains it as formed after godfather and godsibb, the source of gossip.^[9] In Old English, words for family relationships were compounded with the word for God to show that sponsors entered into a spiritual kinship with the baptized person and with each other.^[9] The Scandinavian words, Old Norse guðmóðir, Old Swedish guþmoþir, Swedish gudmoder and Danish gudmoder, are probably modelled ultimately on the English word.^[9] Etymonline describes the Middle English word as remaking or replacing the Old English one.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman who sponsors a child at baptism: early Old English, in the Cleopatra Glossary.^[9] Bosworth–Toller quotes it from an Old English life of a saint whose sponsor at baptism was a nun named Romana.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to before the 12th century,^[3] Dictionary.com to before 1000,^[11] and Etymonline gives the compound with God from the late 13th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED, godfather and its partner words seem to have replaced an older West Germanic set modelled on Medieval Latin commater and compater, such as gefædere, a godmother, and Old High German gifatara.^[9] In Middle English the word appears in the Lambeth Homilies of about 1225, which name godfathers and godmothers as sureties at the font.^[2] It was extended to a woman sponsoring someone at confirmation (before 1464, in Capgrave) and to one with a similar role at the blessing and naming of a church bell (1593),^[9] a use the Shorter Oxford calls rare and dates only from the mid 19th century.^[10] Johnson (1755) called it "a term of spiritual relation".^[12] Figurative uses, often recalling the godmother's naming of the child or her guidance, also date from 1593.^[9] In the 20th century the word followed godfather into new senses: a woman who founds or shapes an organization or a movement (1910) and, in originally American slang, the woman who heads a criminal gang (1970).^[9] The verb, to act as godmother to, is recorded from 1658.^[9]

Timeline

• Old English – a woman who sponsors a child at baptism.^[9][5]
• c. 1225 – Middle English godmoder, in the Lambeth Homilies.^[2]
• before 1464 – a female sponsor at confirmation.^[9]
• 1593 – a female sponsor at the consecration of a church bell; also in figurative use.^[9]
• 1658 – verb, to act as godmother to.^[9]
• 1910 – a woman who founds or leads a movement or organization.^[9]
• 1970 – slang, a woman who heads a criminal organization.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman who sponsors a child at baptism; a female godparent.^[13][3][9]
2. A woman who founded or strongly influenced a movement, field or organization: the godmother of modern dance.^[9]
3. (slang) A woman who heads a criminal organization, especially a Mafia family.^[9]
4. (rare) A woman who acts as sponsor at the consecration of a church bell.^[9][10]

Verb

1. To act as godmother to.^[9]

Word family

• fairy godmother
• godmotherly
• godmothership

Related words

• godfather
• godchild
• goddaughter
• godson
• godparent
• gossip
• gammer
• God
• mother

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins