mother-of-pearl

mother-of-pearl

English

Mother-of-pearl.

Etymology

Calque of Latin māter perlārum, with the first element perhaps connected in popular imagination with obsolete mother (“dregs”).[1] Possibly referring to the fact that the nacre-lined shells are the belly (“mother”) in which pearls are produced.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmʌðəɹ əv ˈpɜː(ɹ)l/

Noun

mother-of-pearl (countable and uncountable, plural mother-of-pearls)

1. The hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 170:

     Ah, those Indian warehouses made the morning pass in a charming manner! many a soft confession was whispered over a huge china jar; many a heart has succumbed to a suite of mother-of-pearl card-box and counters; and as to the shawls, why, the whole feminine world has long ago acknowledged them to be irresistible.

2. A butterfly of the genus Salamis.

Alternative forms

• mother of pearl

Synonyms

• nacre

Translations

pearly layer

Abkhaz: амыркылд (amərkʼəld) Albanian: sedef (sq) m Arabic: عِرْق اللُّؤْلُؤ‎ m (ʿirq al-luʾluʾ), صَدَف‎ m (ṣadaf), أُمّ اللَّآلِئ‎ f (ʾumm al-laʾāliʾ) Armenian: սադափ (hy) (sadapʿ) Azerbaijani: sədəf Bashkir: мәрүәт (märüät) Belarusian: перламу́тр m (pjerlamútr), пэрляму́тар m (perljamútar) Bengali: মৌক্তিক (mouktik) Bulgarian: седе́ф m (sedéf) Burmese: မုတ်ခွံ (my) (muthkwam), ကနုကမာ (my) (ka.nu.ka.ma) Buryat: эржэн (eržen), тана (tana) Catalan: mareperla (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 珍珠母 (zhēnzhūmǔ), 珧 (zh) (yáo) Czech: perleť f Danish: perlemor (da) n Dutch: parelmoer (nl) n Estonian: pärlmutter Finnish: helmiäinen (fi) French: nacre (fr) f Friulian: mariperle f Georgian: სადაფი (sadapi) German: Perlmutt (de) n, Perlmutter (de) f or n Greek: φίλντισι (el) n (fílntisi) Ancient: πινάριον n (pinárion) Hebrew: דַּר‎ (he) m (dar) Hindi: सीप (hi) m (sīp) Hungarian: gyöngyház (hu) Icelandic: perlumóðir f Indonesian: indung mutiara (id), gewang (id) Irish: néamhann m Italian: madreperla (it) f Japanese: 真珠層 (しんじゅそう, shinjusō), 真珠母 (しんじゅぼ, shinjubo) Kalmyk: тан (tan) Kazakh: седеп (sedep), тана (tana) Korean: 진주층 (jinjucheung), 진주모 (jinjumo) Kyrgyz: седеп (ky) (sedep) Latvian: perlamutrs m Lithuanian: perlamutras m Macedonian: седеф m (sedef) Maranao: lageng Mongolian: тана (mn) (tana) Navajo: diichiłí Norwegian: Bokmål: perlemor (no) m or n, kjerne (no) m Nynorsk: perlemor n Pashto: صدف‎ (ps) m (sadáf) Persian: صدف‎ (fa) (sadaf) Polish: masa perłowa (pl) f, macica perłowa (pl) f Portuguese: madrepérola f, nácar (pt) m Romanian: sidef (ro) n Russian: перламу́тр (ru) m (perlamútr) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: сѐдеф m Roman: sèdef (sh) m Slovak: perleť f Slovene: sedef m Spanish: nácar (es) m Swedish: pärlemor (sv) c Tagalog: nakar, inamperlas, binga Tajik: садаф (sadaf) Tatar: пәрәмәч (tt) (pärämäç) Telugu: ముత్యపుచిప్ప (mutyapucippa) Turkish: sedef (tr) Turkmen: sadap Ukrainian: перламу́тр m (perlamútr) Urdu: سیپ‎ m (sīp), صدف‎ (sadaf) Uyghur: سەدەپ‎ (sedep) Uzbek: sadaf (uz) Vietnamese: xà cừ (vi) Walloon: please add this translation if you can Welsh: nacr m, cregynwisg f Yakan: tipey Yiddish: פּערל־מוטער‎ (perl-muter)

butterfly

Finnish: satraappi (fi)

Adjective

mother-of-pearl (not comparable)

1. Made from or looking like mother-of-pearl; iridescent or pearly.

See also

• pearl

References

• “mother-of-pearl”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “mother-of-pearl”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "mother-of-pearl" in On-line Medical Dictionary, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997–2005.
• "mother-of-pearl" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “mother-of-pearl”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.