motherly

English

Etymology

From Middle English moderly, from Old English mōdorlīċ (“motherly, maternal”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlīkaz (“motherly, maternal”), equivalent to mother +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌðəli/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌðɚli/

Adjective

motherly (comparative more motherly, superlative most motherly)

1. Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.
   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC, page 6:

     Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life […]

Synonyms

• maternal
• motherful
• motherlike

Derived terms

• motherliness

Related terms

• earth-motherly

Translations

befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving

• Albanian: amënor (sq)
• Arabic: أُمِّيّ (ʔummiyy), أُمُومِيّ (ʔumūmiyy)
• Armenian: մայրական (hy) (mayrakan)
• Belarusian: мацяры́нскі (macjarýnski), ма́тчынскі (mátčynski)
• Bulgarian: ма́йчински (májčinski), ма́йчин (májčin)
• Czech: mateřský (cs)
• Danish: moderlig
• Finnish: äidillinen (fi)
• German: mütterlich (de)
• Hebrew: אִמָּהִי (imahi)
• Hungarian: anyai (hu)
• Italian: materno (it)
• Lithuanian: motiniškas
• Macedonian: мајчински (majčinski)
• Persian: مادرانه (fa) (mâdarâne)
• Polish: macierzyński (pl), matczyny (pl)
• Russian: матери́нский (ru) (materínskij)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ма̀те̄ри́њӣ m, ма̏терӣнскӣ m

  Roman: màtērinjī (sh) m, mȁterīnskī (sh) m

• Slovak: materský
• Slovene: materinski, materin
• Swedish: moderlig (sv)
• Ukrainian: матери́нський (materýnsʹkyj), ма́терній (máternij)

Adverb

motherly (comparative more motherly, superlative most motherly)

1. In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of a mother.
   • 1554, Iohn Bradford, Certain Most Godly, Fruitful, and Comfortable Letters of Such True Saintes and Holy Martyrs of God, […], published 1564, page 288:

     The mother sometime beateth the child, but yet her hart melteth vpon it euen in the very beating, and therefore she casteth the rodde into the fier, and colleth the childe, geueth it an apple and dandleth it moste motherly.

   • 1663, Abraham Cowley, The Danger of Procrastination, published 1669:

     I Am glad that you approve and applaud my design, of withdrawing my self from all tumult and business of the World; and consecrating the little rest of my time to those studies, to which Nature had so Motherly inclined me, and from which Fortune like a Step-mother has so long detained me.

   • 1887, George Mac Donald, Home Again, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., pages 52–53:

     To the father it would have been the worst of his loss to see his son wiping the sweat and dust from the forehead his mother had been so motherly proud of, and hear the heavy sigh with which he would sink in the not too easy chair that was all his haven after the tossing of the day’s weary ground[-]swell.

   • 1925, Kamala Krishna, Torchbearers: A Story of the Realms of the Mastersouls, page 239:

     Mrs. Rutherford looked motherly at the eager girl and caressed her curls […]

Synonyms

• maternally