motherwit

I mean, I might not have grown up with a spindle in my hand either, but I think I could be kind of trusted to see a damned sharp point if one came under my hand, and I would like to think (faery curses aside) that I would have the motherwit not to impale myself on one.

Happily Ever After… at SF Novelists 2009

Then all being gone, a glance of motherwit helping, he whispers close in going: Madam, when comes the storkbird for thee?

Ulysses 2003

Then all being gone, a glance of motherwit helping, he whispers close in going: Madam, when comes the storkbird for thee?

Ulysses James Joyce 1911

Cissy's quick motherwit guessed what was amiss and she whispered to

Ulysses James Joyce 1911

Every valuable nature is there in its own right, and the student we speak to must have a motherwit invincible by his culture, which uses all books, arts, facilities, and elegancies of intercourse, but is never subdued and lost in them.

The Conduct of Life (1860) 1856

Raw, crude materials came together; men of the same level, as regarded education and station, took suddenly the different positions of masters and men, owing to the motherwit, as regarded opportunities and probabilities, which distinguished some, and made them far-seeing as to what great future lay concealed in that rude model of Sir

North and South Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

In John’s various acts of resistance are reflected his most exemplary values and attributes: motherwit, the power of laughter and song, self-assertion, self-examination, self-knowledge, a belief that life is process grounded in the fertile field of improvisation, hope, and most importantly, love.

Over My Shoulder #40: bell hooks on plantation patriarchy, black feminism, and black men’s relationship to masculinity. From We Real Cool. 2007

In John’s various acts of resistance are reflected his most exemplary values and attributes: motherwit, the power of laughter and song, self-assertion, self-examination, self-knowledge, a belief that life is process grounded in the fertile field of improvisation, hope, and most importantly, love.

Rad Geek People’s Daily – 2007 – December – 31 2007

Cissy’s quick motherwit guessed what was amiss and she whispered to Edy Boardman to take him there behind the pushcar where the gentleman couldn’t see and to mind he didn’t wet his new tan shoes.

Ulysses 2003