October 16, 1996

mother lode

OK, I've been wondering about the term "mother lode." Why is it "lode" not "load" and what does my mother have to do with it?

OK, it's lode because the phrase is a figurative use of the mining term lode, which means 'a vein of metal ore'. It's mother because mother's being used in the sense 'bearing a relation like that of a mother, as in being the origin or source'.

The original sense of mother lode is 'the main lode of a particular region'; this sense goes back to the mining days of the late nineteenth century. The figurative sense, which is the more common one now that mining is a relatively rare topic for discussion, is 'an abundant source or supply'. As in, "New York is the mother lode of neurotic writers." This sense developed by the middle of this century.