comadre

Galician

Etymology

Attested since the 15th century. From Late Latin commater, commatrem, from Latin mater.

Cognate with Portuguese comadre, Spanish comadre, Catalan comare and Italian comare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [koˈmaðɾɪ]
• Hyphenation: co‧ma‧dre

Noun

comadre f (plural comadres)

1. midwife
2. The godmother of one's child
3. The mother of one's godchild
4. A very dear and honoured female friend; cummer
5. (humorous, mildly derogatory) gossipmonger

Related terms

• madre

See also

• compadre

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “comadre”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “comadre”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “comadre”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “comadre”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Late Latin commater, commatrem, from Latin mater.

Cognate with Catalan comare, Extremaduran comairi, French commère, Galician comadre, Italian comare, Mirandese cumadre, and Spanish comadre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ˈma.dɾi/, /ko.ˈma.dɾi/
• IPA^(key): /ku.ˈma.ðɾɨ/
• Hyphenation: co‧ma‧dre

Noun

comadre f (plural comadres, masculine compadre, masculine plural compadres)

1. midwife
2. The godmother of one's child
3. The mother of one's godchild
4. A very dear and honoured female friend
5. gossip

Related terms

• madre

Descendants

• Kadiwéu: inigomaadile

See also

• madrinha

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Spanish

Etymology

From Late Latin commater, commatrem, from Latin mater.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koˈmadɾe/ [koˈma.ð̞ɾe]

Noun

comadre f (plural comadres)

1. midwife
2. the godmother of one's child
3. the mother of one's godchild
4. a very dear and honoured female friend
5. gossip
6. (colloquial) go-between

Derived terms

• comadreja

Related terms

• madre

See also

• comadrona f
• compadre m
• madrina f
• partera f

Further reading

• “comadre”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014