We associate the word 'matrix' with science fiction (cf the series of films including The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded), computer hardware (dot-matrix) and business (matrix management), but it is, in fact, an old word. In most different senses of the word 'matrix', the basic underlying meaning is 'enclosing structure' or 'the place where something originates'. The original 'enclosing structure' or 'place' that 'matrix' referred to was the womb, and the OED has citations for this sense right up to this century.
Thus 'matrix' is related to the word 'mother', both going back to the Latin māter, mother, and, indeed, back before that. The words for 'mother' in most Indo-European languages are cognates, ie they derive from the same source, probably Proto-Indo-European, the earliest ancestor of all the languages in the Indo-European group.
I went on an 'Introduction to Sanskrit' course on Saturday (Sanskrit came after Proto-Indo-European), and the teacher told us that the dhatu (he translated this as 'seed form' which I think means something like 'word root') mā, in the words 'mother' and 'matrix' meant 'measure'. A mother is, therefore, in Sanskrit 'one who measures out ...'. 'Father' in Sanskrit comes from the dhatu pā, meaning 'to protect' (think 'paternal' in English).
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