mater

See also: mateř, mâter, mäter, and måter

English

Etymology 1

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/, /ˈmɑtɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

mater (plural maters or matres)

1. (Britain slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous) Mother.
   • 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.

   • 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.

Etymology 2

mate +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

mater (plural maters)

1. (biology) Someone or something that mates.

Etymology 3

See 'mater.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

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.

Anagrams

• METAR, armet, metra, ramet, tamer, terma, trema, tréma

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Czech

Etymology

Latin māter

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmatɛr]
• Rhymes: -atɛr

Noun

mater f

1. title of an abbess

See also

• matka

Related terms

• imatrikulace
• imatrikulovat
• materiál
• materialismus
• materialista
• materialistický
• materializovat
• matérie
• maternální
• maternita
• matriarchální
• matriarchát
• matrice
• matrika
• matrikář
• matrikářka
• matrimoniální
• matrimonium
• matrix
• matrona

 

Further reading

• mater in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• mater in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• mater in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz

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French

Etymology

From Middle French macter (“to kill”), for the fourth meaning. Cognate to Spanish matar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.te/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Verb

mater

1. to get the better of
2. to checkmate
3. (slang) to ogle, to check out, to watch (e.g. an attractive person)
4. (archaic) to kill

   Synonym: tuer

Conjugation

Conjugation of mater (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mater
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	matant /ma.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		maté /ma.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mate /mat/	mates /mat/	mate /mat/	matons /ma.tɔ̃/	matez /ma.te/	matent /mat/
	imperfect	matais /ma.tɛ/	matais /ma.tɛ/	matait /ma.tɛ/	mations /ma.tjɔ̃/	matiez /ma.tje/	mataient /ma.tɛ/
	past historic2	matai /ma.te/	matas /ma.ta/	mata /ma.ta/	matâmes /ma.tam/	matâtes /ma.tat/	matèrent /ma.tɛʁ/
	future	materai /ma.tʁe/	materas /ma.tʁa/	matera /ma.tʁa/	materons /ma.tʁɔ̃/	materez /ma.tʁe/	materont /ma.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	materais /ma.tʁɛ/	materais /ma.tʁɛ/	materait /ma.tʁɛ/	materions /ma.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	materiez /ma.tə.ʁje/	materaient /ma.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	mate /mat/	mates /mat/	mate /mat/	mations /ma.tjɔ̃/	matiez /ma.tje/	matent /mat/
	imperfect2	matasse /ma.tas/	matasses /ma.tas/	matât /ma.ta/	matassions /ma.ta.sjɔ̃/	matassiez /ma.ta.sje/	matassent /ma.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mate /mat/	—	matons /ma.tɔ̃/	matez /ma.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “mater” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• marte, trame, tramé, tréma

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Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmaː.ter/, [ˈmaː.t̪ɛr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ter/, [ˈmaː.t̪ɛr]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ma‧ter

Noun

māter f (genitive mātris); third declension

1. mother (female parent)
2. mother (source, origin)
3. matron of a house
4. honorific title
5. woman
6. nurse
7. motherland

Declension

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

• alma māter
• mātercula
• māterfamiliās
• māter lectiōnis
• māternālis
• māternus
• mātertera
• mātrālis
• mātrēscō
• mātricīda
• mātrimōnium
• mātrīx
• mātrōna
• mātruēlis

 

Related terms

• māternitās
• mātrīcālis
• mātricīdium
• mātrīcula
• mātrīculārius
• mātrimōniālis
• mātrimus
• mātrōnālis
• mātrōnātus

 

Descendants

Descendants

edit

• Ido: matro
• Interlingua: matre
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Istriot: mare
  • Italian: madre
  • Sicilian: matri
• Ladin: mère
• Lombard: mader
• Middle English: matere
  • English: mater
• Mozarabic:
  • Arabic script: ماطْرى‎ (matri)
  • Hebrew script: מאתרי‎ (matri)
• Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: mai
• Novial: matra
• Old Franco-Provençal: *mādre, māðre
  • Franco-Provençal: mâre
• Old French: medre, mere
  • Middle French: mere
    • French: mère
      • Haitian Creole: mè
  • Bourguignon: meire
  • Norman: mère, méthe
  • Walloon: mere

• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: madre, ma
  • Extremaduran: mairi
  • Fala: mairi
  • Leonese: mai
  • Mirandese: mai, madre
• Old Portuguese: madre, mãy
  • Galician: mai, nai, madre
  • Portuguese: mãe, madre
    • Angolar: maa
    • Annobonese: mai, me
    • Guinea-Bissau Creole: mai
    • Indo-Portuguese: mãe, mai
    • Kabuverdianu: mai
    • Kristang: mai
    • Principense: mwin
    • Sãotomense: men
    • Tetun Dili: madre
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: mare
  • Occitan: maire
• Old Spanish: madre
  • Ladino: madre / מאדרי‎
  • Spanish: madre
    • Tagalog: madre
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: mari
• Venetian: mare

See also

• mamma
• pater

References

• 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
    

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Middle English

Noun

mater

1. Alternative form of matere

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Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

mater

1. present of mate

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Serbo-Croatian

Noun

mater

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

Anagrams

• trema, metra

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Slovak

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *mati.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmacɛr/

Noun

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

1. mother

Declension

Declension of mater

	singular	plural
nominative	mater	matere
genitive	matere	materí
dative	materi	materiam
accusative	mater	matere
locative	materi	materiach
instrumental	materou	materami

Derived terms

• materina dúška
• materinský
• materný
• materský
• materstvo
• materčina

 

Further reading

• mater in Slovak dictionaries at korpus.sk