allomother

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From allo- +‎ mother.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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allomother (plural allomothers)

  1. (zoology) A human or other creature that provides some maternal care for the young born of another.
    • 2000, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and how They Shape the Human Species, page 162:
      Within hours of birth, baby langurs are spirited away from their mothers. They spend up to 50 percent of daylight hours passed from allomother to allomother
    • 2009 March 3, Natalie Angier, “In a Helpless Baby, the Roots of Our Social Glue”, in New York Times[1]:
      Among the !Kung foragers of the Kalahari, babies are held by a father, grandmother, older sibling or some other allomother maybe 25 percent of the time.

Synonyms

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Translations

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Verb

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allomother (third-person singular simple present allomothers, present participle allomothering, simple past and past participle allomothered)

  1. (transitive) To provide maternal care for another creature's young.