bestemor – Norwegian Bokmål noun declension

Noun: bestemor
Gender: Masculine, Feminine Hyphenation:

Indefinite

Sg.	bestemor
Pl.	bestemødre; bestemødrer

Definite

Sg.	bestemora; bestemoren
Pl.	bestemødrene

Sample Sentences

Hun er bestemor til fire. (She is a grandmother of four.)
bestemors lov — “grandmother's law” (A principle of emphasizing a person's positive qualities and downplaying their negative ones.)
«Skammelig» var et ord Mari aldri hadde brukt før, men hun hadde hørt bestemora si det. (“Shameful” was a word Mari had never used before, but she had heard her grandmother say it.) [1990, Klaus Hagerup, Høyere enn himmelen, page 94:]
om Stoltenberg anklager Erna Solberg for å ville sette bestemor ut på anbud, kan både Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet tjene på det (If Stoltenberg accuses Erna Solberg of wanting to put grandmother out to tender, both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party may benefit from it.) [2004, Victor D. Norman, Blue notes, page 172:]
som leder bruker [han] «Bestemors lov» som ideal: Jeg prøver å overse det negative og styrke det positive (As a leader, [he] uses “Grandmother's Law” as an ideal: I try to overlook the negative and reinforce the positive.) [1995 July 22, VG:]

Nouns inflected like bestemor

surrogatmor, svigermor, jordmor, bonusbestemor, alenemor, oldemor, bestemor, lesemor, mor, farmor, gudmor, mormor, husmor, svigerbestemor, stemor,

Etymology

1. From beste (“best; affectionate or respectful form of address”) + mor (“mother”).
2. The first element reflects an older custom of using beste (“best; dear”) as an affectionate or respectful form of address for relatives and friends. A parallel formation used god (“good; dear”), preserved in dialectal godmor (“grandmother”). Compare also dialectal beste (“grandmother”).
3. Compare Norwegian Nynorsk bestemor, Danish bedstemor, Dutch bestemoeder and Middle Low German beste moder (“grandmother, literally “best mother””). Further compare dialectal Swedish bästa mor (“grandmother; elderly woman”) and dialectal German Bestemutter and Bessmutter (“grandmother”), parallel formations which are not the ordinary modern standard terms. See: Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns 'bestemor', Danish Nouns 'bedstemor', Dutch Nouns 'bestemoeder'.