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godmother. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
godmother, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
godmother in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
godmother you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English godmoder, from Old English godmōdor (“godmother”), equivalent to god- + mother. Cognate with Old High German gotmuoter (“godmother”), Old Norse guðmóðir (“godmother”), Icelandic guðmóður (“godmother”), Swedish gudmoder (“godmother”), Danish gudmor (“godmother”).
Pronunciation
Noun
godmother (plural godmothers)
- A woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Translations
woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner
- Arabic: عَرَّابَة f (ʕarrāba), إِشْبِينَة f (ʔišbīna)
- Armenian: կնքամայր (hy) (knkʻamayr)
- Asturian: madrina (ast) f
- Basque: amabitxi (eu)
- Belarusian: хро́сная ма́ці f (xrósnaja máci), хро́сная f (xrósnaja)
- Bulgarian: кръ́стница f (krǎ́stnica)
- Catalan: padrina (ca) f
- Chavacano: padrina
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 乾娘 / 干娘 (zh) (gānniáng), 教母 (zh) (jiàomǔ)
- Czech: kmotra (cs) f
- Danish: gudmor c, gudmoder c
- Dutch: meter (nl) f
- Esperanto: baptopatrino
- Finnish: kummitäti (fi)
- French: marraine (fr) f
- Galician: madriña f
- Georgian: ნათლიდედა (natlideda), ნათლია n (natlia)
- German: Patin (de) f, Patentante (de) f, Taufpatin (de) f, Gotte (de) f (Swiss, Alemannic), Firmgodl f (Austrian), Firmpatin (de) f, Godel f (South German), Godl (de) f (Austrian, Bavarian), Gote (de) f (regional), Taufgodl f (Austrian), Gevatterin (de) f
- Greek: νονά (el) f (noná)
- Hungarian: keresztanya (hu)
- Ido: baptomatro (io)
- Indonesian: ibu baptis
- Ingrian: naiskooma, maattuška
- Irish: máthair bhaistí f
- Italian: comare (it) f (godmother of one's child), madrina (it) f (one's own godmother)
- Japanese: 教母 (きょうぼ, kyōbo), 代母 (だいぼ, daibo)
- Javanese: nini among
- Korean: 대모(代母) (ko) (daemo)
- Latin: matrina f
- Latvian: krustmāte
- Macedonian: кума f (kuma)
- Nheengatu: manhangawa
- Norman: mârraine f
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: gudmor m or f
- Nynorsk: gudmor f
- Occitan: mairina (oc) f
- Persian:
- Iranian Persian: مادَرْخوانْدِه (mâdarxânde), مادَرَنْدَر (mâdarandar)
- Polabian: federă f
- Polish: matka chrzestna (pl), chrzestna (pl) f
- Portuguese: madrinha (pt) f (reflects the relationship to the baptized child); comadre (pt) f (reflects the relationship to the parents of the baptized child, not to the child)
- Romanian: nașă (ro) f, nună (ro) f
- Romansch: madritscha f, madretscha f
- Russian: крёстная мать f (krjóstnaja matʹ), крёстная (ru) f (krjóstnaja)
- Scottish Gaelic: muime f, màthair-bhaiste f, bana-ghoistidh m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ку́ма f
- Roman: kúma (sh) f
- Sicilian: cummari f or f pl (godmother of one's child), parrina f (one's own godmother)
- Slovak: krstná mama f (reflects the relationship to the baptized child); kmotra f (reflects the relationship to the parents of the baptized child, not to the child)
- Slovene: botra (sl) f
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: kmótša f
- Spanish: madrina (es) f, comadre (es) f
- Swedish: gudmor (sv) c, gudmoder (sv) c
- Tagalog: inaama, ninang (tl), madrina
- Tajik: модархонди таъмидӣ (modarxond-i taʾmidi)
- Taos: kumàyliʼína
- Thai: แม่ทูนหัว (th) (mɛ̂ɛ-tuun-hǔua), แม่อุปถัมภ์ (mɛ̂ɛ-ù-bpà-tǎm)
- Ukrainian: хреще́на ма́ти f (xreščéna máty), хреще́на f (xreščéna), хре́сна ма́ти f (xrésna máty), хре́сна f (xrésna)
- Vietnamese: mẹ đỡ đầu (vi)
- Volapük: spönan (vo) m or f, jispönan f
- Welsh: mam fedydd f
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Verb
godmother (third-person singular simple present godmothers, present participle godmothering, simple past and past participle godmothered)
- (transitive) To act as godmother to.
1909, H. G. Wells, Tono-Bungay:The servants took to her – as they say – she godmothered three Susans during her rule, the coachman's, the gardener's and the Up Hill gamekeeper's.
References
Middle English
Noun
godmother
- (Late Middle English) Alternative form of godmoder