Mother: an insufficient definition that wants to change

A mother is "a woman or female animal that has given birth to another being of the same species"At least, this is what the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) believes, and this is reflected in the first definition of the dictionary, it is difficult to think that its members think so, they are all children and some of them have been mothers, so 46 members of this institution know that being a mother is not limited to conceiving, as the second meaning of the RAE includes, nor giving birth, as the first one points out.

The third meaning is somewhat broader and refers to the "functions of mother". But even so it is incomplete, because no mother receives an instruction manual with their functions nor signs them as if they were a contract.


Be a mother It is not limited only to conceive and give birth, because there are women who are mothers without conceiving or giving birth. Being a mother is not limited to fulfilling some "functions" traditionally associated with the concept of mother, whatever it may be, because there are mothers who break that definition and are still mothers.

You do not have to be a mother to know that this definition is incomplete and old. It is enough to be a son to confirm it; to know that a mother is not the woman who enters the parlor.

Support in social networks to change the meaning of mother

So believe it the more than 31,000 people have contributed their signature on the web www.queesunamadre.org. Strong, brave, fighter, delivered and unique have been the words most used in the deficinitions ofWhat is a mother? to ask the RAE to change the meaning of the dictionary's mother. An action that has supported more than 300,000 people in social networks with the hashtag #UnaMadreEs and to which well-known characters such as the writer Espido Freire, Sara Carbonero, Vicky Martín Berrocal, Jesús Calleja, Christian Gálvez or Patricia Montero, have joined for the moment.


The petition does not intend the RAE to enter into the definition of feelings. It is not their task to verbalize them and only poets are able to combine in some verses universal feelings, also those that awaken mothers, but it is their duty to adapt the dictionary to the language, since such an important institution was founded for the purpose of "fix the voices and words of the Castilian language in its greatest property, elegance and purity".

What is a mother?

For this reason, the writer Espido Freire has led the petition, which has been an initiative of Puleva, and has addressed the academics of the RAE with the aim of "claiming a more precise definition of a precious word: that of 'mother'". "The need to revise the concept of a mother has made such a difference in society that I feel proud to join her and to present a proposal for change," writes Freire in the letter.


"One single word, 'mother', treasures a broad and very rich concept, the woman who not only gives birth, is not only a female, not only raising children. Maybe in the past I could limit myself to that description. But a society that has advanced in psychological wealth, in rights and sensitivity to emotional bonds, understands that 'mother' is much more than that. The mother cares, comforts, orients. The mother nourishes in all the senses, transmits the affection and love without which the human being falls apart. The mother welcomes, whether those children of her blood or not, she has passed her fertile stage or not. The mother delivers an emotional legacy, a vision, irreplaceable values. "These words of the writer from Bilbao can be read in the letter that was presented on June 1 before the RAE.

With these acts, Puleva aims that "the true meaning of motherhood is officially recognized as such in one of the most precious assets shared by more than 559 million people throughout the world: the Spanish language." Thus, the definition of being a mother will not be reduced to the act of giving birth.

The RAE has already faced other requests for change in its dictionary. One of them was the update of "Down's Syndrome", which went from being defined as" disease "to" congenital anomaly. "It also changed the meaning of" trapacero "in the definition of"Gypsy"The RAE also announced in March that it will review the definition of" weak sex "to refer to women and will update it with a use mark to indicate that it is a derogatory expression.

Noelia Fernández Aceituno

More information in the book The 10 habits of happy mothers, from the author Meg Meeker

Video: Short-Change - Shortchange - Vocabulary Builder 3 - ESL British English Pronunciation


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