Other forms: godmothers
A godmother is the woman who promises, at a child's christening, to look after that child for life. She stands at the font while the baby howls, then sends a card every birthday for the next thirty years.
The man's version is a godfather, and the child is your goddaughter or godson. In church the promise is to help bring the child up in the faith; plenty of families now hand out the title with no church anywhere near it, as a way of naming a grown-up who will always be on that child's side. Two stories have taken the word over. The fairy godmother of Cinderella turns up with a wand when things are at their worst, so a fairy godmother is anyone who rescues you out of nowhere. The godfather of the gangster films pulls the other way — and a godmother, in that world, is rare enough to be worth remarking on. A godmother is not a grandmother, and she need not be a relative at all.
1nounpromisesA woman who promises at a child's baptism to help raise the child in the faith.~17%
“His godmother gave him a small silver cup that he still has.”
2noungodmotherA woman chosen as a lifelong special friend and protector of a child, with no church ceremony involved.~83%
“They asked her oldest friend to be godmother, though nobody in the family goes to church.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense (2 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
godmother is a chosen guardian.
Godmother is exactly what it looks like. Old English had godmōdor, god plus mother — a mother in God rather than in blood — and Middle English carried it on as godmoder. The same compound was made all across the north: Old High German gotmuoter, Old Norse guðmóðir, Swedish gudmoder, Danish gudmor. A thousand years on, the word has barely shifted its shape.
Old English
godmōdor — godmother
Middle English
godmoder
English, today
godmother
From Middle English godmoder, from Old English godmōdor (“godmother”), equivalent to god + mother. Cognate with Old High German gotmuoter (“godmother”), Old Norse guðmóðir (“godmother”), Icelandic guðmóður (“godmother”), Swedish gudmoder (“godmother”), Danish gudmor (“godmother”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA