Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Contemporary (2000–) ·1996
Mompreneur
mom entrepreneur
- Meaning
- A mother running her own small business, often home-based.
- Source words
- mom + entrepreneur
- Coined by
- Patricia Cobe & Ellen Parlapiano
- Year
- 1996
Background
Cobe and Parlapiano published *Mompreneurs* in 1996, making the word a book title before it was a category. The 2000s startup culture gave the word mainstream reach; critics note it implicitly genders a category (*entrepreneur* does not).
Contemporary (2000–)
Faster coinage, faster canonisation. Brexit and podcast both reached the OED within a decade of first use — historically rapid. Social media has made visibility, not invention, the rate-limiting step.
Two words, one coinage.
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