Etymologically
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granny

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡɹæni/[1]

Etymology

It is probably formed from English grannam + -y, with grannam shortened, or else from grandam itself.[2][3][4][5][6] Grannam is a variant of grandam with the d lost by assimilation,[2][7] and grandam is Anglo-Norman graund dame, from the words that gave grand and dame.[4] The OED notes that granny is nevertheless usually understood as a shortening of grandmother,[2] and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com derive it from that word, Dictionary.com with assimilation of the consonants.[7][8] Barnhart allows any of the three as the source,[9] and the American Heritage Dictionary gives both grandmother and grandam.[10] Etymonline, following the OED, prefers grannam to grandmother.[6] Weekley calls grannam a colloquial form of grandam.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An old woman, also a gossip: 1634, in Heywood and Brome's The Late Lancashire Witches.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1663, in Dryden.[12][7]

Semantic evolution

The older word grannam had meant a grandmother or an old woman since 1565.[2] Granny was first an old woman (1634), then from 1659 one's grandmother.[2] In the same year it appears in the proverb about teaching one's granny to suck eggs.[2] The canting dictionary of about 1698 glossed it "an old woman", and Grose (1788) called it an abbreviation of grandmother.[13] In the American South and Midland and in Newfoundland a granny, or granny woman, was a midwife, from 1738, later one without training who served a rural community,[2][7] while since 1880 the verb granny meant to act as a midwife.[2] From 1776, at first in America, a fussy or indecisive person of either sex could be called a granny.[2][3] The sailors' granny knot, earlier granny's knot, is recorded by 1803; it was named in contempt as the knot that women and landsmen tie by nature.[6] The exclamation your granny!, expressing disbelief, dates from 1837.[2] In the 20th century the word made many compounds for things linked with older people or their style, such as granny flat, granny dress, granny glasses (1966) and granny bond (1981).[3][6][2] The Granny Smith apple (1895) is said to be named after Maria Ann Smith of Australia, who raised it.[6] Dialects named plants after grannies, such as granny's bonnet for the columbine and granny's night-cap for the monkshood.[14] In slang, granny was also American for a dollar (1865)[13] and, in Hotten's slang dictionary (1859), importance or knowledge.[13]

Timeline

  • 1565 – grannam, a grandmother or old woman.[2]
  • 1634 – granny, an old woman.[2]
  • 1659 – one's grandmother, also in teach one's granny to suck eggs.[2]
  • 1663 – in Dryden.[12][7]
  • 1738 – a midwife, in the United States.[2]
  • 1776 – a fussy or indecisive person.[2]
  • 1803 – granny's knot, by this date.[6]
  • 1837 – your granny!, an exclamation of disbelief.[2]
  • 1847 – short for granny knot.[2]
  • 1880 – verb, to act as a midwife.[2]
  • 1895 – Granny Smith apples.[6]
  • 1966 – granny glasses.[6]
  • 1981 – short for granny bond.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (informal) A grandmother: Granny lives in the cottage by the river.[15][7][2]
  2. (informal) An old woman.[2][3]
  3. (informal) A person who fusses over small things, or is overcautious.[15][7][2]
  4. (Southern and Midland US) A midwife, especially one with no formal training; also granny woman.[7][2][15]
  5. A granny knot.[7][15][2]
  6. A turning cap on a chimney pot that keeps out the rain.[15]

Verb

  1. (Southern and Midland US) To act as a midwife, or to deliver a baby as one.[7][2]

Word family

  • granny dress
  • granny dumping
  • granny flat
  • granny glasses
  • granny knot

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins