co-mother
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co-mother
Where it comes from
* com- + mother, as calque of Latin commater, French commère.
noun co-mothers · commother
- The relationship of a godmother to the other god-parents, and the legal parents, of a child. It is considered incestuous for a co-mother and co-father to have sex relations
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In polygamy, a wife of one's father who is not one's mother; that is, co-wife of one's mother.
the two of them went to their mother's forest hut and tried to find a way to avenge their mother's death and kill their co-mother.
Similar: sister-wife
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In polygamy, the relationship between one co-wife and another, in respect to their children.
Notwithstanding the voluminous “co-wife” literature that Western anthropologists have used to define African marriage, “co-mother” is the preferred idiom in many African cultures for expressing the relationship amongst women married into the same family.
Similar: sister-wife
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In a lesbian couple, the nonbirth mother (partner of the birth mother) of a child, especially one who takes an equal role in mothering the child.
The dilemmas engendered by the absence of a biological tie between a child and co-mother illuminate the centrality of familial rights and obligations in American kinship.
Similar: stepmother
Talk about this word "co-mother." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/co-mother. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. co-mother. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/co-mother "co-mother." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/co-mother.Cite this
@misc{co_mother_2026,
title = {co-mother},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/co-mother},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
