A.Word.A.Day --Mother Hubbard

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Today's Word

Mother Hubbard

PRONUNCIATION:

(MUHTH-uhr HUHB-uhrd)

MEANING:

noun: A loose shapeless dress for a woman.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Mother Hubbard, a character in the nursery rhyme “Old Mother Hubbard”. Earliest documented use: 1877.

NOTES:

“Old Mother Hubbard” is a nursery poem which details adventures of Mother Hubbard and her dog. In illustrations she’s depicted as wearing a loose-fitting unbelted gown. The first stanza of the poem goes:

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the Cupboard,
To give the poor Dog a bone;
When she came there,
The Cupboard was bare,
And so the poor Dog had none.

USAGE:

“She wore loose Mother Hubbard of gray cloth in which there had once been colored flowers, but the color was washed out now.”
John Steinbeck; The Grapes of Wrath; Viking; 1939.

See more usage examples of Mother Hubbard in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Live and let live, be and let be, / Hear and let hear, see and let see, / Sing and let sing, dance and let dance. ... Live and let live and remember this line: / "Your bus'ness is your bus'ness and my bus'ness is mine." -Cole Porter, composer and songwriter (9 Jun 1893-1964)

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