Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “stepmother” come from?

Stepmother comes from Middle English stepmoder, from Old English stēopmōdor, from Proto-Germanic steupamōdēr, a compound meaning a mother by marriage rather than by birth.

stepmother (English): The wife of one's biological father, other than...

Definitions

  1. The wife of one's biological father, other than...

Ancestry of “stepmother”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishstepmoder—
2Old Englishstēopmōdor—
3Proto-Germanicsteupamōdērstepmother

Words derived from “stepmother”

  • stepmotherly
  • stepmotherhood
Every word from Proto-Germanic steupamōdēr →