mater

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See also: mateř, mâter, mäter, and måter

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Latin māter (mother), partly via Late Middle English matere.[1] Doublet of mother.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater (plural maters or matres)

  1. (Britain, slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous)[1] Mother.
    Coordinate term: pater
    • 1919, P. G. Wodehouse, A Damsel in Distress, page 100:
      Their maters are all pals of my mater, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.
    • 1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32:
      And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.
    • 1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss (lyrics and music), “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red:
      Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later
    • 1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17:
      Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”
  2. (anatomy) A meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

mate +‎ -er [2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater (plural maters)

  1. (biology)[2] Someone or something that mates.

Etymology 3[edit]

See 'mater.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater (plural maters)

  1. Alternative form of 'mater (tomato)
    • 2015, Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover, →ISBN, page 28:
      "A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 mater, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision; March 2009)
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 mater, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft entry; March 2001)

Anagrams[edit]

Czech[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Derived from Latin māter.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater f (indeclinable)

  1. title of an abbess

Related terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • mater in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • mater in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
  • mater in Internetová jazyková příručka

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From mat (mate) +‎ -er.

Verb[edit]

mater

  1. (transitive) to checkmate
  2. (figuratively, transitive) to suppress, quell (a revolution, person, insurrection)
    • 1997, “L'Empire du côté obscur”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:
      Adapter ma technique à la manière du caméléon / Sans pitié pour mater la rébellion
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Conjugation[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Uncertain, perhaps from Spanish mata (bush).[1]

Verb[edit]

mater

  1. (slang, transitive) to ogle, to check out, to watch (e.g. an attractive person)
    • 1997, “Demain, c’est loin”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:
      Mater les photos, majeur aujourd’hui, poto / Pas mal d’amis se sont déjà tués en moto
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Conjugation[edit]

Further reading[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Etymology and history of “mater”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Latin Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia la

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Italic *mātēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Cognate with Old English mōdor (English mother).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

māter f (genitive mātris); third declension

  1. mother (female parent)
    Synonym: genetrīx
    Nē, māter; suam.(please add an English translation of this usage example)
  2. mother (source, origin)
  3. matron of a house
  4. honorific title
  5. woman
  6. nurse
  7. motherland
  8. maternity, motherhood

Declension[edit]

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative māter mātrēs
Genitive mātris mātrum
Dative mātrī mātribus
Accusative mātrem mātrēs
Ablative mātre mātribus
Vocative māter mātrēs

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • son of such and such a father, mother: patre, (e) matre natus

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater (plural maters)

  1. Alternative form of matere
    • 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Morte Arthur]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, verso, lines 15–18:
      Than ſpake ẜ Gawayne And ſeyde brothir · ẜ Aggravayne I pray you and charge you meve no ſuch · maters no more a fore me fro wyte you well I woll nat be of youre counceyle //
      Then spoke Sir Gawain, and said, “Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye assured I will not be of your counsel.”

Norman[edit]

Verb[edit]

mater

  1. to kill

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Verb[edit]

mater

  1. present of mate

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater

  1. accusative singular of mati
  2. (by extension, regional) Alternative form of mati

Anagrams[edit]

Slovak[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mati.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mater f (genitive singular matere, nominative plural matere, genitive plural materí, declension pattern of dlaň)

  1. mother

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • mater”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English matter.

Noun[edit]

mater m (plural materion)

  1. matter, affair
    Synonyms: neges, busnes
  2. substance
    Synonyms: sylwedd, defnydd

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
mater fater unchanged unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “mater”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies