Fictitious old woman, reputedly the source of the body of traditional children's songs and verses known as nursery rhyme s.
Often pictured as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned old woman riding on the back of a flying gander, she was first associated with nursery rhymes in Mother Goose's Melody (1781), published by the successors of John Newbery . The name apparently derived from the title of Charles Perrault 's collection of fairy tales Ma Mère l'oye (1697; "My Mother Goose"). The persistent rumour that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman is false.