"Mother of all X"

[Orin Hargraves]

>
>> Anyone know the origins of the "mother of all" usage that seems so trendy
>> these days? (Or should I say, Anyone know the mother of all "mother of all"
>> phrases?)
>
There are numerous Arabic compounds in which the first term is "Um" (mother,
source, origin), so it may be that S.H. was just using what is in Arabic a
pretty ordinary construction: e.g., Um Qasr, Umm ar-rbia (a river in Morocco,
'mother of spring'), Omduran (city in Sudan), Umm al-hasan (nightingale), umm
ar-ra'as (skull, lit. 'mother of the head'), umm al-watan (metropolis, lit
'mother of the nation'). The Arabic original of the phrase (Um al-Ma’arik,
"mother of battles") does not have a word that means "all."

--Orin Hargraves