μήτηρ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /mɛ̌ː.tɛːr/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈmi.tir/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈmi.tir/^[1]

Forms

μήτηρ (mḗtēr) f (genitive μητέρος or μητρός); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *mā́tēr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”).^[1][2] Doric keeps μάτηρ (mā́tēr), and Mycenaean has Mycenaean Greek ma-te and the dative ma-te-re.^[2][1][3]

It is the old inherited word for “mother”, kept in every branch except Hittite, which has anna-.^[2][4] Cognate with Sanskrit मातृ (mātṛ́, “mother”), Latin māter (“mother”), Lithuanian mótė (“woman, wife, (dialectal) mother”), Old High German muoter (“mother”), Old English mōdor (“mother”), Old Church Slavonic мати (mati, “mother”), Old Armenian մայր (mayr, “mother”) and Phrygian ματαρ (matar).^[2][4][1] Frisk traced it to a nursery word μᾶ (mâ);^[4] Beekes rejects this, since the Lithuanian accent shows a laryngeal, *meh₂-ter-.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets from Pylos have Mycenaean Greek ma-te, and the dative in a phrase read as Ματήρ Θεία, “the Mother of the gods”.^[3] Homer uses it from the first book of the Iliad for a mother, and also for the dam of animals and a mother bird.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Pindar calls a poet's Muse his mother, and Aristotle uses the word for queen bees.^[7][6] “From one's mother” meant from birth (Pindar, Aeschylus).^[6] It also meant a source or origin.^[1]

It formed many compounds: kinship terms such as μητροπάτωρ (mētropátōr) “mother's father” (the Iliad), μητρόπολις (mētrópolis) “mother city” (Pindar, Simonides), and probably the goddess name Δημήτηρ (Dēmḗtēr).^[2] Its derivative μήτρα (mḗtrā) is the womb.^[2] Medieval Greek used the form μητέρα,^[8] which is the Modern Greek word.^[1]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – Pylos tablets record ma-te.^[3][2]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a mother and for the dam of animals.^[6][5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar calls the Muse a poet's mother.^[7][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for queen bees.^[6][9]
• Modern Greek – μητέρα means mother.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mother, of a woman or goddess.^[6][7]
2. The dam of an animal; a mother bird; a queen bee.^[6][7]
3. A source, origin.^[1]

Word family

• μητροπάτωρ (mētropátōr)
• μητρόπολις (mētrópolis)
• μητρομήτωρ (mētromḗtōr)

Related words

• Latin māter
• English mother

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge