Mae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Welsh word meaning mother, used to address or refer to one's female parent
2. The Welsh term for mother, employed as a familial address or designation
3. A Welsh-language word for one's mother or a maternal figure

Etymology: "Mae" is a diminutive of "Margaret," and the longer name carries an unexpected meaning: it traces back to the Greek word for "pearl." The Greek "margarítēs" passed into Latin as "margarita," then through Old French "Margaret" and "Marguerite" into English, and the name is ultimately of Indo-Iranian origin. The name was also tied to a third-century saint, Margaret the Virgin, whose cult helped spread it across medieval Europe. Before it was a personal name, its root was simply a gem, and the same word shows up in older English as "meregrot," literally "stone or pebble of the sea," a folk-etymological reshaping in which the word was understood as "sea-stone."