materfamilias
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Latin māter familiās, mother of the household
NounEdit
materfamilias (plural materfamiliases or matresfamilias)
- The female head of a household
- 1903, Luigi Villari, Italian Life in Town and Country[1], page 110-111:
- The materfamilias and her daughters do a good deal of the housework, and even open the front door on occasion.
- 1990 June 1, Mary Shen Barnidge, “Who Killed the Dragon Lady”, in Chicago Reader[2]:
- That my old-country materfamilias is actually Chinese--Mandarin Chinese, yet--is a negligible discrepancy.