Dictionary

mother lode en · NOUN

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Probably a calque of Spanish veta madre (“mother lode”).

Meanings

1. A large or rich vein of gold or of another precious mineral from which other branches extend.
   • Undeterred, reasoning from the coarseness of the gold that it had not traveled far, they had set out in search of the mother lode. 1912, Jack London, “The Little Man”, in Smoke Bellew:
2. (broadly, idiomatic) Any source of valuable or useful material.
   • It is also letting them probe the genomes of other organisms for DNA that could turn out to be a mother lode for medicine. 2000 April 10, Dick Thompson, “The Feds Step Up the Pace”, in Time:
   • Emerging, but No Longer a Mother Lode of Profits [title] 2014 March 4, Landon Thomas Jr., “Emerging, but No Longer a Mother Lode of Profits”, in New York Times:

Forms

Translations (8)

pl kopalnia (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · fr filon principal (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · es veta madre (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · pl żyła (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · de Hauptader (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · pl złoże (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · fi emosuoni (large or rich vein of precious mineral) · nl hoofdader (large or rich vein of precious mineral)