queen mother
3
6.1
- noun
- Formal
:
reina madre
- The queen mother attended the state banquet to honor her son's coronation.
And what a really good book for those who really like fascinating characters who are very effective, is the untold life of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
- And what a really good book for those who really like fascinating characters who are very effective, is the untold life of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
- I'm reminded of the Queen Mother, you know the old Queen Mother being told one time when she was with on some visit.
Examples
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Swaziland is a monarchy, and there were pictures of the king and the queen mother up on the wall in the immigration office.
Blog text (31) -
There was that frog—the one that leapt into the queen mother's lap at supper.
Fiction book (1993) -
Merry Christmas from the queen mother.
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Day after day, the Queen Mother watched without pity.
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Your visit to the queen mother of Yugoslavia... ...must be cancelled, I'm afraid.
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In any case, the queen mother expects you for tablet weaving today.
Fiction book (1993) -
The figure in the middle wears a conical headdress and a beaded top reserved for the queen mother.
Academic text (2005) -
And through it all, the queen mother complained of gout, of colic, of pains in her fingers, and aches in her back.
Fiction book (1993) -
Zeblawangle, Queen Mother of Ethiopia, served as their guide and attache as they marched out in hopes of joining their force to that of Galodios.
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I's last prime minister, for example, first held the task of guarding the royal lavatories, moving up through a minor chiefship and eventually ascending as chief of royal cooks and butchers, before being appointed prime minister at the prompting of the queen mother in the 1870s.
Academic text (2005)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the mother of the reigning monarch' is directly compositional from 'queen' + 'mother' and a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it as the mother of a queen/king; although it is a conventional title, there is no idiomatic shift. Cross-linguistically similar formations exist, so the relation is immediately understandable rather than figurative or unpredictable.
Etymology
Queen mother comes from the simple idea of a woman who is both a queen and the mother of the current ruler. She may be a former queen who keeps the title after her child becomes king or queen, so the phrase means 'the mother of the reigning monarch'.