From PIE *meh2ter — built from the nursing sound 'ma' plus a kinship suffix, cognate with Latin 'mater' and Greek 'meter.'
A female parent; a woman in relation to her child or children.
From Old English 'mōdor,' from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from PIE *méh₂tēr. Like *ph₂tḗr (father), this word originated from a nursery syllable — the nasal 'ma' sound that infants produce naturally during nursing. The suffix *-tēr formalized it into a kinship term. The word is attested in nearly every IE branch: