母親
ははおや · hahaoya · JLPT N3 · noun
mother
👩👧 母親 = 母 haha (mother) + 親 oya (parent): mother-parent
母 on its own reads haha and means mother; 親 oya means parent, as in 父親 chichioya, father. Mum laughs haha, the parent is oya. 母親 is the more formal word; at home people say お母さん okaasan.
母 — pictograph of kneeling woman with two breast dots
母 is a pictograph derived from 女 (woman) with two added dots representing breasts, marking a nursing mother. The earliest oracle bone forms show a kneeling figure with prominent dots on the chest. The meaning has stayed remarkably stable, denoting 'mother' and by extension 'female' or 'source/origin'.