mater Latin · revision 2752

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 280–200 BC, Livius Andronicus|origins=ine-pro *méh₂tēr}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈmaː.tɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmaː.ter]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''māter''' ''f'' (genitive mātris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Inscriptions have a dative ''matre'' and a dative plural ''matris'' and ''matrabus''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*mātēr]], [[inh|ine-pro|*méh₂tēr|t=mother]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)^(Pokorny 1959) De Vaan takes the Indo-European word as a derivative in *-ter- of the nursery form *ma “mum”, realised as *méh₂- with a long vowel, and calls the root etymology uncertain.^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[xfa|mate]], [[osc|maatreís]] and [[xum|matres]], with [[sa|मातृ|tr=mātár-]], [[ae|mātar-]], [[grc|μήτηρ|tr=mḗtēr]], [[hy|մայր|tr=mayr]], [[sq|motër|t=sister]], [[lt|motė|alt=mótė]], [[cu|мати|tr=mati]], [[goh|muoter]], [[ang|mōdor]], [[sga|máithir]] and [[txb|mācer]], all “mother”.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) [[matertera|alt=Mātertera]] “maternal aunt” contains the comparative suffix *-tero-, “she who is like a mother”, and [[materia|alt=māteria]] “matter, timber” is a derivative.^(de Vaan 2008) Verrius Flaccus, as Festus reports, connected it with [[maturus|alt=mātūrus]] “ripe, good”, and Isidore of Seville explained it as “matter” (''materia''), since the father is the cause.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is found from Livius Andronicus onwards,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) in whose ''Odyssey'' many suitors came to woo the hero's [[m|en|mother]].^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Beyond the mother, it meant the mistress of a household (''mater familias''), in the plural married women or matrons, and poetically motherly feeling.^(OLD 2012) It was a foster-mother or nurse, as in Plautus' twins whose nurse could not tell them apart, a respectful address to old women, a title of the senior woman of a society or of the camp (''mater castrorum''), and ''mater patriae'' for an empress.^(OLD 2012) Goddesses bore it as a title, above all Cybele, the ''Mater deum'' or ''Magna Mater''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Of animals it was the dam, of plants the parent stock, and the earth was the mother of all living things.^(OLD 2012) Figuratively it was the motherland, the mother city of a colony, and the source of a thing, as in “folly is the mother of all evils”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Medieval Latin used it for an abbess and in ''mater ecclesia'' for the cathedral or the mother church of a parish, and ''vetus mater'' was Eve.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Köbler 2010) All Romance languages keep it, as Italian and Spanish ''madre'', French ''mère'' and Portuguese ''mãe'',^(Wiktionary) and English ''mater'' is a borrowing.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 280–200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it of Odysseus' mother.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a nurse and as an address to an old woman.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 220–130 BC – Pacuvius calls the earth a mother.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero calls philosophy the mother of all good deeds.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the motherland and of a parent tree.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 98–115 AD – Tacitus reports the proposed title ''mater patriae''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great has a medieval sense.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|mother]], as in ''mater familias'', the mistress of a household, and in the plural matrons.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A foster-mother, a nurse.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A respectful address to an old woman, a title of the senior woman of a society, and ''mater patriae'', a title of an empress.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A title of goddesses, especially Cybele.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The dam of an animal; the parent stock of a plant; the earth as mother of all.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The motherland; a mother city, a [[m|en|metropolis]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A source, an origin.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' An abbess, and ''mater ecclesia'', a cathedral or mother church.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[bimāter]]

+ * [[commāter]]

+ * [[māterfamiliās]]

+ * [[mātercula]]

+ * [[māteria]]

+ * [[māternus]]

+ * [[mātertera]]

+ * [[mātrastra]]

+ * [[mātrātus]]

+ * [[mātrēscō]]

+ * [[mātricīda]]

+ * [[mātrimōnium]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[māternitās]]

+ * [[mātrīcālis]]

+ * [[mātricīdium]]

+ * [[mātrīcula]]

+ * [[mātrīculārius]]

+ * [[mātrimōniālis]]

+ * [[mātrimus]]

+ * [[mātrōnālis]]

+ * [[mātrōnātus]]

+ * [[mamma]]

+ * [[pater]]

+ * [[en|mother]]

+ * [[en|maternal]]

+ * [[en|matter]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}