móðir

f., gen. dat. acc. móður; plur. in nom. and acc. mæðr (mœðr), gen. mæðra, dat. mæðrum. There is also a monosyll. form mæðr, indecl. throughout in the sing., and answering to feðr, föðr or bræðr (= faðir, bróðir); but these forms are unknown in mod. Icel., and are seldom used in the genuine old writers, being mostly found in legendary writers, who probably followed some provincial Norwegianism; thus passim in Stjórn, af mæðr konungsins, Stj. 82; mæðrinnar kvið, 80: [this word is common to all Teut. languages except Goth., which used aiþei = Icel. eiða (q. v.) instead]:—a mother; sonr á at taka arf eptir föður sinn ok móður, Grág. i. 171; föður-móðir, a father’s mother, 172; faðir ok móðir, id., in countless instances: as a nickname, konunga-móðir, Jarla-m., Fb. iii: in popular tales, the mother of a whole brood (animals), skötu-m., sela-m., laxa-m., represented as an ogre, Maurer’s Volks. 34.