motherboard

English

Etymology

Compound of mother +‎ board. Attested since 1965.

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌðɚˌbɔɹd/
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

motherboard (plural motherboards)

(computer hardware) The primary circuit board of a personal computer, containing the circuitry for the central processing unit, keyboard, mouse and monitor, together with slots for other devices.
Synonyms: mainboard, mobo
- 2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 8:
  An electronics shop was selling ugly refurbished computers. They were small black and grey things with exposed motherboards and cracked cases.

Derived terms

daughterboard

Related terms

mothercard

Descendants

→ Bengali: মাদারবোর্ড (madarbōrḍ)
→ Japanese: マザーボード (mazābōdo)
→ Chinese: 母板 (mǔbǎn) (calque)
→ Dutch: moederbord (calque)
→ Estonian: emaplaat (calque)
→ Finnish: emolevy (calque)
→ Icelandic: móðurborð (calque)
→ Irish: máthairchlár (calque)
→ Italian: scheda madre (calque)
→ Portuguese: placa-mãe (calque)
→ Russian: матери́нская пла́та (materínskaja pláta) (calque)
→ Ukrainian: матери́нська пла́та (materýnsʹka pláta) (calque)

Translations

primary circuit board of a computer

Afrikaans: moederbord
Arabic: اللَّوْحَةُ الأُمّ f (al-lawḥatu l-ʔumm)
Azerbaijani: ana lövhə
Bengali: মাদারবোর্ড (bn) (madarbōrḍ)
Catalan: placa mare f, placa base f, targeta mare f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 主機板 / 主机板 (zyu² gei¹ baan²), 主板 (zyu² baan²), 母板 (mou⁵ baan²), 底板 (dai² baan²)

Mandarin: 主板 (zh) (zhǔbǎn), 母板 (zh) (mǔbǎn), 主機板 / 主机板 (zh) (zhǔjībǎn), 系統板 / 系统板 (xìtǒngbǎn), 底板 (zh) (dǐbǎn)
Czech: základní deska (cs) f
Danish: bundkort n, motherboard (da) n
Dutch: moederbord (nl) n
Esperanto: ĉefkarto, ĉeftabulo, patrinplato
Estonian: emaplaat (et)
Finnish: emolevy (fi)
French: carte mère (fr) f, carte principale f, carte de fond de panier f
Georgian: დედაპლატა (dedaṗlaṭa), მაზერი (mazeri) (slang)
German: Hauptplatine (de) f, Mainboard (de) n, Motherboard (de) n
Greek: μητρική κάρτα (el) f (mitrikí kárta)
Hindi: मदरबोर्ड (madarborḍ)
Hungarian: alaplap (hu)
Icelandic: móðurborð (is) n
Ido: matroplako (io), chefoplako
Irish: máthairchlár m
Italian: scheda madre (it) f
Japanese: マザーボード (ja) (mazābōdo), メインボード (ja) (meinbōdo)
Kazakh: жүйелік тақта (jüielık taqta)
Khmer: បន្ទះមេ (bɑntĕəh mei)
Korean: 메인보드 (meinbodeu), 마더보드 (madeobodeu)
Macedonian: матична плоча f (matična ploča)
Malay: papan induk
Polish: płyta główna (pl) f
Portuguese: placa-mãe (pt) f
Romanian: placă de bază f
Russian: матери́нская пла́та (ru) f (materínskaja pláta), ма́ма (ru) f (máma) (slang)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: матична плоча f

Roman: matična ploča f
Spanish: placa base f, motherboard (es) (slang), placa madre f
Swahili: bodimama
Swedish: moderkort (sv) n
Thai: แผงวงจรหลัก
Turkish: anakart (tr)
Ukrainian: матери́нська пла́та f (materýnsʹka pláta)
Vietnamese: bo mạch chủ

References

“motherboard”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Danish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English motherboard.

Noun

motherboard

(computer hardware) motherboard