Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the United States. Originally, the celebration was inspired by the British holiday “Mothering Sunday”, held on the fourth Sunday of Lent[1]. It was adopted by the activist Julia Howard Ward to rally[2] women together in favor of peace after the horror of the Civil War. The day gained so much popularity that it was given status a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson to honor the mothers whose sons had fallen[3] in war. Since then, the holiday has become very commercial. It’s typical to send cards to your mother and buy her gifts. It has also become the most popular day for families to eat out in restaurants, in order to give mothers a break from cooking! Here are some terms and expressions with our dear mothers in them!
Your first lessons as a child were probably learnt at your mother’s knee, especially language, which is why we refer to our first language as the mother tongue. If you are completely dependent on your mother because you can’t make decisions for yourself, then you are tied to your mother’s apron strings[4]. A son whose mother has too much influence over him is a mamma’s boy.
Of course, there are other types of mothers. There’s the mother of all mothers, Mother Earth, who sustains[5] life on our planet. She often goes by the name of Mother Nature, who controls the forces of nature. On the other hand, visitors from outer space arrive in the mother ship, which carries other, smaller spaceships[6] inside.
If you accumulate or find a large amount[7] of something, you possess a mother lode[8]. For example, I found a mother lode of information in the library’s archives. Then there’s the mother of all something, useful for overemphasizing opinions. For example, “I have a headache” is the mother of all excuses. Speaking of excuses, they are an example of how necessity is the mother of invention[9], which means that solutions are created out of need.
[1] Cuaresma, [2] reunir, [3] muerto, [4] literalmente, estas atado a las cuerdas del delantal de tu madre, [5] sustentar, [6] astronaves, [7] cantidad, [8] veta madre, [9] la necesidad agudiza el ingenio
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