MOTHER

The Hebrew words AM and AB, mother and father, are simple and easy sounds for infant lips, like mamma and papa in English. See ABBA. "Before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and My mother," Isa 8:4. In addition to the usual meaning of "mother," AM sometimes signifies in the Bible grandmother, 1Ki 15:10, or some remote female ancestor, Ge 3:20. It is put for a chief city, 2Sa 20:19; for a benefactress, Jud 5:7; for a nation, as in the expressive English phrase, "the mother country," Isa 3:12 49:23. The fond affection of a mother is often referred to in Scripture; and God has employed it to illustrate his tender love for his people, Isa 49:15. Mothers are endowed with an all-powerful control over their offspring; and most men of eminence in the world have acknowledged their great indebtedness to maternal influence. When Bonaparte asked Madame Campan what the French nation most needed, she replied in one word, "Mothers." The Christian church already owes much, and will owe infinitely more, to the love, patience, zeal, and self-devotion of mothers in training their children for Christ.

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MOTHER. → General scriptures concerning Ex 20:12; 21:15,17; Le 18:7; 19:3; 20:9; De 5:16; 1Ki 19:20; Pr 1:8; 6:20; 10:1; 15:20; 19:26; 20:20; 23:22-25; 28:24; 29:15; 30:11,17; Mt 10:37; 15:4-6; 19:19; Mr 7:10-12; 10:19; Lu 18:20; Eph 6:2; 2Ti 1:5 → See CHILDREN, DUTY OF → See PARENTS

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mother. Mother, [o as u] n. a woman who has borne a child, a viscous substance in vinegar

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Moth″er (?), n. [[OE. moder, AS. mōdor; akin to D. moeder, OS. mōdar, G. mutter, OHG. muotar, Icel. mōðir, Dan. & Sw. moder, OSlav. mati, Russ. mate, Ir. & Gael. mathair, L. mater, Gr. μήτηρ, Skr. mātṛ; cf. Skr. mā to measure. √268. Cf. Material, Matrix, Metropolis, Father.]] 1. 1. A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a woman who has borne a child.
2. 2. That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix.
Alas! poor country! . . . it can not Be called our mother, but our grave. Shak. I behold . . . the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. Landor. 3. 3. An old woman or matron.
4. 4. The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc.
5. 5. Hysterical passion; hysteria. Shak.
Mother Carey's chicken (Zoöl.), any one of several species of small petrels, as the stormy petrel (Procellaria pelagica), and Leach's petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), both of the Atlantic, and O. furcata of the North Pacific. — Mother Carey's goose (Zoöl.), the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See Fulmar. — Mother's mark (Med.), a congenital mark upon the body; a nævus.