mater

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere.^[1] Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtə/^[1]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/,^[1] /ˈmɑtɚ/^[1]
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

mater (plural maters or matres)

1. (British, slang, now chiefly archaic or humorous)^[1] Mother.

   Coordinate term: pater

   • 1919 June 14, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 50, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter XX, page 57, column 1:

     Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.

   • 1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32:

     And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.

   • 1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss (lyrics and music), “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red:

     Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later

   • 1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17:

     “Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”

2. (anatomy) A meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.

From mate +‎ -er.^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtə/^[2]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/^[2]
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

mater (plural maters)

1. (biology)^[2] Someone or something that mates.

See 'mater.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪtɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

mater (plural maters)

1. Alternative form of 'mater (“tomato”)
   • 2015, Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover, →ISBN, page 28:

     "A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks.

• mater sammich

• METAR, Marte, armet, metra, ramet, tamer, terma, trema, tréma

Derived from Latin māter.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmatɛr]
• Rhymes: -atɛr

mater f (indeclinable)

1. title of an abbess

• matka

• “mater”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “mater”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “mater”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

• IPA^(key): /ma.te/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

From mat (“mate”) +‎ -er.

mater

1. (transitive) to checkmate
2. (figuratively, transitive) to suppress, quell (a revolution, person, insurrection)
   • 1997, “L'Empire du côté obscur”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:

     Adapter ma technique à la manière du caméléon / Sans pitié pour mater la rébellion

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Uncertain, perhaps from Spanish mata (“bush”).^[1]

mater

1. (slang, transitive) to ogle, to check out, to watch (e.g. an attractive person)
   • 1997, “Demain, c’est loin”, in L'École du micro d'argent, performed by IAM:

     Mater les photos, majeur aujourd’hui, poto / Pas mal d’amis se sont déjà tués en moto

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “mater”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• marte, trame, tramé, tréma

Picture dictionary
atavia atavus abavia abavus proavia proavus avia / ava māterna avus māternus avia / ava paterna avus paternus cōnsobrīna / mātruēlis cōnsobrīnus / mātruēlis patruēlis patruēlis mātertera avunculus amita patruus / barbās māter pater sōbrīna /neptis /neptia sōbrīnus / nepōs frātruēlis /neptis /neptia nepōs /frātruus /frātruēlis sorōrius /marītus sorōris soror frāter frātria / uxor frātris socrus socer /patraster socrus socer /patraster soror uxōris frāter uxōris glōs lēvir uxor /marīta /coniunx /nūpta marītus /coniunx gener / fīliaster fīlia / nāta fīlius / nātus nurus / fīliastra prōgener neptis /neptia nepōs prōnurus proneptis pronepōs abneptis abnepōs
Click on blue labels in the image.

From Proto-Italic *mātēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Cognate with Old English mōdor (English mother).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmaː.ter/, [ˈmäːt̪ɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ter/, [ˈmäːt̪er]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ter

māter f (genitive mātris); third declension

1. mother (female parent)

   Synonym: genetrīx

   Nē, māter; suam. ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. mother (source, origin)
3. matron of a house
4. honorific title
5. woman
6. nurse
7. motherland
8. maternity, motherhood

Third-declension noun.

• mamma
• pater

• “mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mater”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • son of such and such a father, mother: patre, (e) matre natus
    

mater (plural maters)

1. Alternative form of matere
   • 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Morte Arthur]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, verso, lines 15–18:

     Than ſpake ẜ Gawayne And ſeyde brothir · ẜ Aggravayne I pray you and charge you meve no ſuch · maters no more a fore me fro wyte you well I woll nat be of youre counceyle //

     Then spoke Sir Gawain, and said, “Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye assured I will not be of your counsel.”

mater

1. to kill

mater

1. present of mate

mater

1. accusative singular of mati
2. (by extension, regional) Alternative form of mati

• trema, metra

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mati.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmacɛr/

mater f

1. mother

• “mater”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2024

From English matter.

mater m (plural materion)

1. matter, affair

   Synonyms: neges, busnes

2. substance

   Synonyms: sylwedd, defnydd

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “mater”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies