mother church
English
noun
Definitions
- (Christianity) The Church regarded as nourishing and protecting its members.
- (Christianity) A church with oversight over another or others, now especially a cathedral or metropolitan church.
- (Christianity) The original church of a denomination, regarded as having birthed the others.
- (Christianity) The original denomination or community of believers from which other denominations and communities of believers sprang.
Etymology
Derived from Latin mater ecclesia (mother church) derived from Old French mere (mother).
Origin
Old French
mere
Gloss
mother
Concept
Semantic Field
Kinship
Ontological Category
Person/Thing
Kanji
母
Emoji
🤰 🤱 🤶
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- mater Latin
- mater ecclesia Latin
- matrem, mater Latin
- mere Old French
- mere Middle French