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.
| 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall Ded., Your Spouse now the yong fruteful Matriarch of that multi-potent Marquesad. 1629 Donne 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. 1837 Southey Doctor cxvii. IV. 158 Dr. Southey has classed this injured Matriarch [Job's wife] in a triad with Xantippe and Mrs. Wesley. 1883 J. 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. 1893 Harper's Weekly 7 Jan. 11/1 Miss Flora McFlimsey, who nowadays must be a matriarch of some thirty-five seasons' standing. |
| transf. 1860–1 D. 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. |