mãe

See also: mae, Mae, Maè, Māe, mä, mæ, ma'e, and -mä

Portuguese

Alternative forms

  • mãy (obsolete)
  • mãi (obsolete)
  • manhê (colloquial, used in yelling or slow speech)

Etymology

From Old Portuguese mãy, from madre, from Latin māter (“mother”), from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”).

Compare Galician mai, nai, Mirandese and Leonese mai, Asturian ma and Aragonese mai.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɐ̃j̃/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

mãe f (plural mães)

  1. mother (female who gives birth to or parents a child)
  2. (figuratively) mother (source or origin)
    A Ibéria é a mãe da Era do Descobrimento.
    Iberia is the mother of the Age of Discovery.
  3. (attributive, in compounds) whence others spawn, are generated, are copied or stem
    nave-mãe
    mothership
    célula-mãe
    stem cell
  4. lees (sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages)

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

  • (female parent): pai

Derived terms

  • mãezinha (diminutive)
  • mãezona (augmentative)
Descendants

Further reading

  • mãe in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
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