Eldermother

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A revered elderly woman who serves as the matriarch and ancestral mother of a family, clan, or community
2. An honored old female ancestor regarded as the head and source of a family line or tribe
3. The senior female figure of a kinship group, respected as the mother from whom its members descend

Etymology: "Eldermother" is a plain compound of "elder" and "mother," joining the Old English-rooted adjective meaning older or senior with the everyday word for a female parent. The combination describes a mother who is the senior or eldest figure in a family or line, and the word follows the same pattern as other elder-plus-kin formations in English. Because the parts are so transparent, the word's history is largely the history of its two components. "Elder" comes from Old English "eldra," the comparative of "eald" (old), while "mother" descends from Old English "mōdor," a word shared with many other Germanic languages. The compound simply puts these two ordinary words together, so its meaning can be read straight off its parts without any special sense shift.