{"id":2418,"date":"2025-02-17T10:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=2418"},"modified":"2025-02-17T10:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:39:41","slug":"metaphor-of-the-month-mother-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2025\/02\/17\/metaphor-of-the-month-mother-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor of the Month! Mother Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mother<\/a>You may be old enough to recall a Chiffon Margarine advertising campaign<\/a> featuring a woman dressed like an Earth-deity and the motto “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”<\/p>\n

I agree, though margarine never fooled me. I love cooking so bring on the butter, lard (for pie crusts), avocado oil, and olive oil. Otherwise, get out of my kitchen.<\/p>\n

So where did the phrase Mother Nature come from? When was it first coined? The OED is wonky today, giving lots of page errors, but I detect two entries, with one giving a first recorded use of 1390. That means three years before the birth of Gutenberg, so it merits some attention. The problem with this usage<\/a>, from Chaucer’s Physician’s Tale, comes from the lack of “Mother.” The teller does relate nature to a female deity, but that association goes back to a time not simply before printing but before writing itself.<\/p>\n

The same entry gives a date of 1500 for “Dame Nature,” so we clearly see a pattern emerging. Not until 1962 does the OED replace “Dame,” perhaps from midcentury US usage as a belittling term for women, with “Mother.”<\/p>\n

The second entry<\/a> in the OED helps a great deal with our etymology, with instances of “mother nature,” without capital letters, reaching back to 1525.<\/p>\n

As for Chiffon? The current owner of the brand discontinued US and Canadian distribution back in 2002, as Wikipedia<\/a> informs me. Mother Nature had the last laugh. While I don’t think we have an actual angry goddess lashing out at puny homo sapiens<\/em> who do so much harm to our ecosystems, pause a moment to pay some respect. With a real winter this year (which I love) it could seem that Mama ain’t happy with us. Or is it Papa? Old Man Winter is another metaphor worth our while (and for next year).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile sit back, slow down, stay home if you can, enjoy the quiet ferocity of a snow-storm. It’s not nice to fool around with Old Man Winter, either.<\/p>\n

If you think of any words or metaphors to share with the community in 2025, send them to me at jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu or by leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n

That call for content includes updates and corrections. Regular reader Michael Stern gives us some clarity on our recent word of the week, inure<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I have been a practicing attorney for more than fifty years and I have never seen the word inure spelled ‘enure.’\u00a0 If I ever did, I probably would have thought it to be a spelling error.”<\/p>\n

Excellent feedback. I always welcome it!<\/p>\n

See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may be old enough to recall a Chiffon Margarine advertising campaign featuring a woman dressed like an Earth-deity and the motto “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” I agree, though margarine never fooled me. I love cooking so bring on the butter, lard (for pie crusts), avocado oil, and olive oil. Otherwise, get … Continue reading Metaphor of the Month! Mother Nature<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2516,87405,40199,87399,40197],"tags":[87401],"class_list":["post-2418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-literature","category-metaphor","category-vocabulary","tag-metaphor-of-the-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2425,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418\/revisions\/2425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}