FromMiddle Englishmoderly, fromOld Englishmōdorlīċ(“motherly, maternal”), fromProto-Germanic*mōdērlīkaz(“motherly, maternal”), equivalent tomother +-ly.
motherly (comparativemoremotherly,superlativemostmotherly)
- Befitting amother; warm, caring,nurturing,protective, loving.
befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving
motherly (comparativemoremotherly,superlativemostmotherly)
- In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of amother.
1554,Iohn Bradford,Certain Most Godly, Fruitful, and Comfortable Letters of Such True Saintes and Holy Martyrs of God, […], published1564, page288:The mother sometime beateth the child, but yet her hart melteth vpon it euen in the very beating, and therefore she casteth the rodde into the fier, and colleth the childe, geueth it an apple and dandleth it mostemotherly.
1663,Abraham Cowley,The Danger of Procrastination, published1669:I Am glad that you approve and applaud my design, of withdrawing my self from all tumult and business of the World; and consecrating the little rest of my time to those studies, to which Nature had soMotherly inclined me, and from which Fortune like a Step-mother has so long detained me.
1887,George Mac Donald,Home Again, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.,pages52–53:To the father it would have been the worst of his loss to see his son wiping the sweat and dust from the forehead his mother had been somotherly proud of, and hear the heavy sigh with which he would sink in the not too easy chair that was all his haven after the tossing of the day’s weary ground[-]swell.
1925, Kamala Krishna,Torchbearers: A Story of the Realms of the Mastersouls, page239:Mrs. Rutherford lookedmotherly at the eager girl and caressed her curls[…]
