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The word ‘Mother’ derives from the Old English term modor, which is cognate with the Latin word mater and the Greek word meter. (From the Latin term, such words as maternal and maternity are derived.)

The term refers not only to a female parent but also to a woman in authority, such as the head of a women’s religious community; it was also long employed as a respectful term of address for an elderly woman. It may also apply to an origin, precursor, or source, as in the expression “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

A stepmother is a woman who marries one of one’s parents, and

a mother-in-law is the mother of one’s spouse. 

Motherly describes maternal behavior, and 

motherlike alludes to a resemblance to the qualities of a mother. 

Motherhood describes the quality or state of being a mother.

The verb mother pertains to the act of producing biological or figurative offspring. 

Motherland describes one’s home country,

Mother Nature is the maternal personification of nature as the source of all that exists in the natural world. 

Open compounds that include the term mother include

“earth mother” (meaning “a maternal figure”)

“mother cell” (“a cell in an organism that produces usually different types of cells”),

“mother hen” (“an overly protective person”),

“mother lode” (“a primary mineral lode or vein” or “a primary source or supply”),

“mother wit” (“natural intelligence or wit”), and

“mother ship” (“a ship that serves smaller vessels”).

A stage mother, meanwhile, is one who pressures a child to participate in the performing arts and demands special treatment for him or her; the term is derogatory, with the implication that she is living vicariously through the child.

Expressions that use the term mother follow:

a face only a mother could love: said of an unattractive person.

at (one’s) mother’s knee: alluding to learning something as a child.

every mother’s son: an evocative way of saying “everyone”

everybody/everyone and (one’s) mother: a hyperbolic expression referring to a crowd

the mother of all (blank): a hyperbolic reference to the best or greatest of a type of thing

swear/swore on (one’s) mother’s grave: a hyperbolic reference to a solemn confirmation that one is telling the truth because of the association with the sanctity of a parent’s gravesite

tied to(one’s) mother’s apron strings: said of a man who has not asserted his independence from his mother

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