日積月累學口語:由"母親"演化來的單詞

Metropolis 大都市

Nowadays, it refers to a large city — particularly an important one. 這個詞現在多指大都市，尤其是地位比較重要的城市。

In ancient Greece, metropolis referred to the mother city of a colony. Metropolis comes from the Greek mētēr ("mother") + polis ("city"). 在古希臘，metropolis指殖民地的宗主城市。Metropolis一詞源於希臘語的mētēr(母親)和polis(城市)。

Matrix 母體，背景，模型

The term originates in the Latin mater, meaning "mother."這個詞源於拉丁語中的mater一詞，意爲“母親”。

The original (now-archaic) meaning of matrix was "uterus." Today the word usually refers to a situation or set of conditions in which something develops or ix一詞最早的意思爲“子宮”（如今該用法已棄用）。現在，這個詞通常指形勢或者事物發展或成形的條件。

Alma Mater 母校

Alma mater refers either to a school one attended, or to that school's mater指“母校”或者母校的校歌。

The ancients used alma mater as a title for such goddesses as Ceres, the Roman goddess of the growth of food plants, and Cybele, who was worshipped as the universal mother of gods, humans, and animals。古代的人用alma mater來指代穀神星(古羅馬掌管穀物生長的女神)和希比利神(亦稱“衆神之母”，是宇宙中一切神、人類和動物之母)。

Matrimony 婚姻

Matrimony joins two people, but that pairing is rooted in one word: mother。婚姻讓兩個人走到一起，不過這種聯姻源自於一個詞：mother(母親)。

Matrimony comes from mater, Latin for "mother." This reflects the traditional role of marriage in legalizing motherhood—allowing women to produce legitimate children and imony也源自於拉丁語中的mater(母親)一詞。這也反應了母系合法化過程中婚姻的傳統地位，即婚姻讓女人能夠繁衍合法的子嗣。

Matter 物質

The fact of the matter is this: the Latin word for "mother," mater, is this word's distant er一詞怎麼會出現在這裏？事情是這樣的，拉丁語中的mater(母親)一詞是matter一詞的遠祖。

Mater was shaped into materia, meaning "physical substance" or "matter." Materia eventually developed into r一詞後來演化成materia，即“物質”。而materia一詞最終演化成了matter這個詞。

Why did mother lead to matter? The connection is uncertain, but perhaps it's because matter is the substance from which something is made; and it is mother from which we all are made。“母親”和“物質”之間有什麼因果關係呢？答案尚不明確。或許因爲物質是構成所有事物的成分，也是我們所有人成形之源頭吧。