moeder Dutch · revision 37191

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=901–1000, Wachtendonck Psalms|origins=ine-pro *méh₂tēr}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈmu.dər/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''moeder''' ''f'' (plural moeders or gemoederen, diminutive moedertje n, masculine vader)^(Wiktionary)

+ The contracted form ''moer'' is recorded from 1615; the popular ''moeier'' is obsolete, and children say ''moe'' and ''moes''.^(WNT)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|dum|moeder]], [[inh|odt|muoder]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*mōder]], [[inh|gem-pro|*mōdēr|t=mother]].^(EWN)^(Wiktionary)^(Kroonen 2013) The same word is [[osx|mōdar]], [[goh|muoter]] (modern [[de|Mutter]]), [[ofs|mōder]] (modern [[fy|moer]]), [[ang|mōdor]] (modern [[en|mother]]) and [[non|móðir]].^(EWN)^(Kroonen 2013)^(Van Veen & Van der Sijs 1997)

+

+ It continues [[ine-pro|*méh₂tēr|t=mother]], the source also of [[la|māter]] (whence [[fr|mère]]), [[grc|μήτηρ|tr=mḗtēr]] and [[lt|mótė]], and of words for “mother” in Sanskrit, Old Irish, Old Church Slavonic, Armenian and Tocharian.^(EWN)^(Van Veen & Van der Sijs 1997)^(De Vries & De Tollenaere 2004|251) Like [[vader]] it is an Indo-European kinship term in ⟨*-ter-⟩.^(EWN) The Indo-European stress on the root should have given a Germanic ⟨*mōþer-⟩, as [[broeder]] has ⟨þ⟩; the ⟨d⟩ is explained by analogy with the word for “father”.^(EWN) Kroonen puts it the other way round: the stress moved to the suffix already in Proto-Germanic, after the word for “father”, as also happened in Sanskrit.^(Kroonen 2013)

+

+ The intervocalic ⟨d⟩ dropped from late Middle Dutch on, giving [[moer]], and shortening gave the pet forms [[moe]] and ⟨moeke⟩.^(EWN) Unlike [[broer]] beside ⟨broeder⟩, the contracted form did not replace the full one in the standard language, and survives only in derived senses: ⟨moer⟩ “nut (of a screw)”, ⟨moerstaal⟩ “mother tongue” and phrases such as ⟨naar zijn moer⟩ “broken”.^(EWN)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old Dutch ''muoder'' first appears in the 10th-century Wachtendonck Psalms, in ''kindon muodir minro'' “to my mother's children”.^(EWN)^(ONW)^(Van der Sijs 2001) The first Middle Dutch record is from a Lower Rhine text of about 1201–1225: ''din muoter is uil siec'' “your mother is very ill”.^(EWN)^(VMNW)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Already in Old Dutch the word was used figuratively, of the heavenly Jerusalem as the mother of the church and of the synagogue as mother of the early church.^(ONW) Middle Dutch ''moeder'' also meant the womb (1285), as in [[baarmoeder]], the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, and a woman at the head of an institution or household (1377–1378).^(EWN)^(MNW) The devil's mother was proverbial: ''de duivel en zijn moer'' is recorded in 1612.^(WNT) ''Daar helpt geen lievemoeder aan'' “no pleading will help” is found in the late medieval ''Proverbia communia'' as ''liefmoederen''.^(Stoett 1923)

+

+ Modern Dutch uses ''moeder'' also for something likened to a mother: ''Moeder Aarde'', or a parent company, a ''moederbedrijf''.^(Van Dale 2014)^(ANW) In Frisian the corresponding ''moer'' is a distant word beside the everyday ''mem''.^(EWN)

+

+ The word passed into Negerhollands (''muder''), Skepi Dutch and Sranan Tongo, where ''mudru'' once meant “mother” and now the leader of a singing and dancing group; the Danish idiom ''der hjælper ingen kæremor'' copies the Dutch one.^(Van der Sijs 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 901–1000 – Old Dutch ''muoder'' in the Wachtendonck Psalms.^(EWN)^(Van der Sijs 2001)

+ * c. 1100 – Figurative use for Jerusalem and the synagogue in the Leiden Willeram.^(ONW)

+ * c. 1201–1225 – Middle Dutch ''muoter'' in a Lower Rhine text.^(EWN)^(VMNW)

+ * 1237 – ''Moeder'' in a Ghent charter, beside ''vader''.^(VMNW)^(De Vries & De Tollenaere 2004|251)

+ * 1285 – The sense “womb”.^(EWN)

+ * 1377–1378 – The head of a household or house.^(EWN)

+ * 1612 – ''De duivel en zijn moer''.^(WNT)

+ * 1615 – The contracted form ''moer''.^(WNT)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|mother]], a woman who has given birth to or raised one or more children: ''Zijn moeder komt uit Gent.''^(Van Dale 2014)^(ANW)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A person or thing compared to a mother, as the source or origin of something; a [[m|en|parent company]].^(Van Dale 2014)^(ANW)^(WikiWoordenboek)

+ # A woman who heads an institution, especially a [[m|en|convent]].^(Van Dale 2014)^(ANW)

+ # A woman seen as the protector or [[m|en|figurehead]] of a group or movement.^(ANW)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[baarmoeder]]

+ * [[grootmoeder]]

+ * [[moe]]

+ * [[moederkoek]]

+ * [[moedervlek]]

+ * [[moer]]

+ * [[moesje]]

+ * [[moederkoren]]

+ * [[moedernaakt]]

+ * [[aartsmoeder]]

+ * [[draagmoeder]]

+ * [[moedertaal]]

+ * [[moederlijk]]

+ * [[stiefmoeder]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|mother]]

+ * [[de|Mutter]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Zo moeder, zo dochter'' is “like mother, like daughter”.^(Van Dale 2014) In older Dutch ''moeder'' could also mean the dregs of wine or vinegar, a form of [[modder]].^(MNW)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}