The story
The sense of the ambitious mother was popularized by the parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011) by Amy Chua.
First known use, by meaning
- from 20th c. A woman who is fiercely protective of one or more people in her care.
- from 21st c. A mother who drives her child or children very hard to succeed in school or in extracurricular studies, such as learning a musical instrument.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.