Time to reload on “mother lode”

June 2nd, 2008 at 07:03am Barry Wood

Yes, we make mistakes here at the Register Star, and we try to own up to the ones involving factual errors in our reporting by running corrections. Others are catch as catch can.

I’m mentioning this one because it can be instructional, and the lesson, often repeated, is “Watch out for homonyms.”

The correct term for an “abundant or rich source” is “mother lode,” NOT “mother load.” “Lode” is a mining term for a vein or deposit of a valuable substance. A “mother lode” is an especially rich concentration, the mother of all lodes.

This is not to say that mothers are not load-bearing, because they are — and usually to a greater extent than they ever get credit for.

Two other valuable “lode” terms: “lodestone” is specifically a strongly magnetized rock and generally anything that “attracts as with magnetic force”; and “lodestar” is a star used in navigation, especially the North Star, and generally “a guiding principle or ideal.”

Entry Filed under: perplexing pairs