Mother City, noun phrase

Forms:
Also with small initials.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Specific use of general English mother-city metropolis, home town, here referring to Cape Town’s status as the oldest city in South Africa and the first point of settlement by people from Europe.
The Mother City: Cape Town. Cf. Tavern of the Seas (see tavern sense 1).
[1908 Westminster Gaz. (U.K.) 4 Aug. 5Capetown..is in the truest sense..the ‘mother-city’ from which the rest have sprung.]
1913 H. Tucker Our Beautiful Peninsula 17Those who believe that the Mother City has still its best days to come, are equally assured that..fair women and brave men will never be lacking to grace and guard the Cape Town yet to be.
1936 E. Rosenthal Old-Time Survivals 23The district of Malmesbury, near the Mother City, is to this day known as ‘Zwartland’ to crowds of South Africans.
1943 Outspan 9 July 11I have watched the civic growth of our Mother city for over 40 years.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 74 (chapter heading)Cape Town, the ‘Mother City’.
1973 Drum 8 Mar. 14Unique to the Mother City the singing and dancing of her Brown children echoes through the main streets by day and re-echoes down her back-alleys by night.
1979 Capetonian July 20It’s up to everyone who prides himself on being a Capetonian..to help in whatever way possible to put life back in that old girl, the Mother City.
1989 T. Botha in Style June 108Driving between the mother city and the highveld is an emotional experience...It’s totally South African.
1992 Living Mar. 69Table Mountain, Sentinel Rock of the mother city.
The Mother City:Cape Town.
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19081992

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English
mother, nounn.Mother-in-law, nounn.
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