| 释义 |
matriarch|ˈmeɪtrɪɑːk|
[f. L. mātr(i)-, māter mother: on the supposed analogy of patriarch (apprehended as if f. pater father).]
A woman having the status corresponding to that of a patriarch, in any sense of the word. In various nonce-uses, now usually jocular.
1606W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall Ded., Your Spouse now the yong fruteful Matriarch of that multi-potent Marquesad. 1629Donne Fifty Serm. (1649) xliv. 417 The learnedest Nun, and the best Matriarch, and Mother of that [the Roman] Church, I think, that ever writ, Heloyssa. 1837Southey Doctor cxvii. IV. 158 Dr. Southey has classed this injured Matriarch [Job's wife] in a triad with Xantippe and Mrs. Wesley. 1883J. W. Hales in Athenæum 24 Feb. 248, I believe this gentleman [Father Hubbard] to be an after⁓thought—to be a mere weak masculine reflex of the matriarch. 1893Harper's Weekly 7 Jan. 11/1 Miss Flora McFlimsey, who nowadays must be a matriarch of some thirty-five seasons' standing.
transf.1860–1D. Coleridge in Philol. Soc. Trans. 168 The relation which our Indian sister holds to the ancient Bactrian matriarch, nay of the great mother herself to the surrounding families. |