mother of all
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Calque of Arabic أُمّ (ʔumm, “mother (of)”). Popularized and given its current sense by Saddam Hussein's claim that the impending Gulf War would be the أُمّ المَعَارِك (ʔumm al-maʕārik, “mother of (all) battles”),[1] though mother had long been used in somewhat similar senses in English,[2] and other familial terms are used with the same meaning, like granddaddy (of all traffic jams) and father (of all battles).
Phrase[edit]
- (colloquial) Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).
- Synonyms: father of all, granddaddy of all, grandmammy of all (etc)
- 2003 December 26, “2003 Movie Guide”, in Christian Science Monitor:
- Driving to a dinner engagement, a Parisian woman gets stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, offers a ride to a handsome pedestrian, and enters a fleeting affair that catches both of them by surprise.
- 2006, Jean Chatzky, “Get the Scoop”, in Money, vol. 35.8:
- Five mail-order ice creams. Four pregnant women. Welcome to the mother of all taste tests.
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006), page 1327, "mother of all"
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mother”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.