153: mother May 10, 2015

Happy Mother's Day; the word 'mother' does not have any surprising derivation, it comes from the Old English word 'mōdor', but what is interesting is how many languages have nearly identical words. It is related to Dutch 'moeder', German 'mutter', Spanish 'madre', and Russian 'mat' from an Indo-European root shared by Latin 'mater' and Greek 'mētēr', and Sanskrit 'matru'. This is just a small list of words, but Proto Indo European links a plethora of languages, and something very basic, mother, is shared by many across the globe.