Thought for the day: Padel has the patron saint of Madron as a male, Matronus. But the meaning is the root *Matrona, an Italo-Celtic, Latin or Celtic word meaning mother. The Matrona of Madron may have been a categorical name applied purely to a specific person in this context, or perhaps their title or occupation (a classematic). The name is related to the word modrep ‘aunt’, from reb, ‘next to’ mother. The three mothers or three hags (or “Try Matrones”) are also taken to be maiden, mother and crone, or perhaps the Saints Mary the Virgin, Brigit and Ann. There is one case of the male name Matronus, again with the root ‘mother’. If it is correctly Matronus, and not just a late medieval folk etymology, could the name mean mother-man?
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