godmother

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by MaksTurchyn (talk | contribs) as of 01:58, 27 November 2019.
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

Etymology

From Middle English godmoder, from Old English godmōdor (godmother), equivalent to god +‎ mother. Cognate with Old High German gotmuoter (godmother), Old Norse guðmóðir (godmother), Icelandic guðmóður (godmother), Swedish gudmoder (godmother), Danish gudmor (godmother).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 159: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value RP is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɡɒdmʌðə/
  • Hyphenation: god‧mother

Noun

godmother (plural godmothers)

  1. A woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Translations

Verb

godmother (third-person singular simple present godmothers, present participle godmothering, simple past and past participle godmothered)

  1. (transitive) To act as godmother to.
    • 1909, H. G. Wells, Tono-Bungay
      The servants took to her – as they say – she godmothered three Susans during her rule, the coachman's, the gardener's and the Up Hill gamekeeper's.

References


Middle English

Noun

godmother

  1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of godmoder