motherhouse
Etymology
From mother + house.
motherhouse means The monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MOTHERHOUSE — [Noun] The principal convent or monastery from which other houses of a religious order are founded and on which they depend. From the English compound of mother (in the sense of 'originator or primary') and house (in the sense of 'a religious community or its building'). Unlike a priory, which is a subordinate dependency, or an abbey, which may be autonomous but not necessarily generative, the motherhouse is the administrative and spiritual rootstock. It is the vaulted archive where the founding rule is kept in its original hand, the unvarying cadence of matins that sets time for distant chapels, and the cloister garden from which all subsequent cuttings are taken. Every satellite looks back to its fixed and silent center.
noun
- The monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.“The Cistercian order is named after its motherhouse Cîteaux in Burgundy, where abbot St. Bernard initiated in 1113 the reform of their branch of the Benedictine order, which has its motherhouse at Monte Cassino.”
- The convent which is the seat (and often the above original foundation) of the superior of an order or congregation, and/or on which lower ranking houses (such as priories under an abbot) depend.