Fun for Friday: The Etymology of Mother and Related Words
Image by Shlomaster from Pixabay
Since it’s nearly Mother’s Day, this week’s Fun for Friday is about etymology and mothers!
“Mother” is one of those words with very deep roots, across multiple languages. Part of the explanation of this is that “mater” originally comes from Proto Indo-European, which is the root of a LOT of languages. And of course, this links to words like “maternal” (with obvious connections) and “alma mater,” which is more of an institution serving as a mother to scholars.
But it’s also the source of words like “matter” and “matrix.” “Matter” makes some sense, as it comes from the meaning of mother as “source”–and this is also where we get “material.” Makes sense that matter and material are related, of course.
“Matrix” seems a little stranger, but it’s connected to the idea of a womb and, yet again, the “source” connotation of mother. How we get from there to the mathematical meanings of the word is a little more complicated, buried DEEP in the Wikipedia article on matrix, but this blog post explains some of the evolution of the term in a shorter version!
So there you go! Fun facts to share with your mother on Mother’s Day!
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