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Verbete do dia

LOS ANGELES -- Um dos meus sites favoritos é o Your Dictionary, um excelente, se não o melhor, dicionário online. A quem ainda não conhece, e usa dicionário em inglês, sugiro uma visita; a quem não usa também, porque é interessante verificar como, aos poucos, ele está se transformando num verdadeiro portal de palavras. Entre as suas diversas opções encontra-se um feature chamado Word of the Day, uma palavra sempre explicada com graça e precisão; ela é enviada, gratuitamente, para a mailbox dos usuários interessados. A de hoje foi, apropriadamente, esta:

Today's Word:
Mother (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['mê-dhêr]

Definition 1: A female parent. One who gives birth to and/or permanently nurtures, comforts and protects a child.

Usage 1: As befits the term, "mother" is the progenitor of a large and meaningful word family. "Motherly" is the adjective and adverb of today's word, as in "motherly love" and "she motherly wiped the little boy's tears away." "Motherliness" is the noun expressing the warmth, nurturing concern and protectiveness that give the root, "mother," its true meaning. "Mother" also serves as a verb with its own noun: "Mothering and working a full-time job can lead to exhaustion."

Suggested usage: When Sadaam Hussein challenged the US to the "mother of all battles," we all knew exactly what he meant because of the primordial force of motherhood throughout our language: Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Mother of God, Mother Goose (the originator of all children's stories since the book's first printing in 1719), the mother lode, the motherland—even the motherboard in your computer. Mothers are all associated in all our minds with our origins and what is essential, crucial, and most important.

Etymology: The origin of the word for "mother" in virtually all Indo-European languages is the baby-talk syllable "ma," (usually the first recognizable syllable uttered by a baby and also the basis of "mama") plus the kinship suffix -ter (-ther), also found in "sister, "brother," and "father." The original form, *mater- evolved into Latin "mater," Greek "meter" (as in "metropolis," the mother city), German "Mutter," French "mère," Serbian "majka," Russian "mat', materi," Italian and Spanish "madre," Portuguese "mãe," Danish "moder," Dutch and Afrikaans "moeder," Norwegian "mor," Swedish "moder," Icelandic "móðir," Irish "máthair," Hindi "mataji," Gujarati "maataa," Farsi (Persian) "madar," and Pashto "mor."

—Audra Himes, yourDictionary.com