Noun
The tough fibrous membrane covering the brain and the spinal cord and lining the inner surface of the skull. It is the outermost of the three meninges that surround the brain and spinal cord. (thefreedictionary.com)
Synonym: Dura, pachymeninges, pachymeninx
Word origin: From Medieval Latin dura mater cerebri, literally “hard mother of the brain,” a loan-translation of Arabic umm al-dimagh as-safiqa, literally “thick mother of the brain.” “In Arabic, the words ‘father,’ ‘mother,’ and ‘son’ are often used to denote relationships between things”