mamma

English has two words spelled mamma: the nursery word for a mother, also spelled mama, and the anatomical term for the breast or mammary gland, a borrowing of the Latin word.^[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

• /ˈmæmə/^[5]

mamma¹ mother

Etymology

The word for a mother is a reduplication of the syllable ma, one of the first sounds made by infants;^[2][6][4][7] Barnhart thinks it probably imitative,^[1] and Etymonline suggests an imitation of the sound of sucking.^[8] Similar words are found in many languages, among them Ancient Greek μάμμη (mámmē, “mother, grandmother”), Latin mamma (“mother; breast”), Lithuanian mamà (“mother”), French maman and Welsh mam (“mother”);^[9][1][8][6] Barnhart thinks the word was passed on through the ages rather than formed anew each time, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mammā.^[1] Weekley suggests that the spelling, like that of papa, was influenced by Latin.^[10] The later spelling mama is recorded from 1707 or 1727.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

One's mother: 1555, in R. Eden's translation of Peter Martyr, under the spelling mama.^[11] Barnhart's first record of mamma is in Lyly's Euphues (1579),^[1] and Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline finds the late appearance of the word in English curious, since Middle English already had mome, an aunt or old woman, from the mid 13th century.^[8] Johnson (1755) called it the fond word for mother, believed to be found in every language.^[12] In the 19th and 20th centuries the word spread, first in African American and Caribbean usage, to a respectful address to an older woman (1810) and in slang to a wife, girlfriend or attractive woman (1916).^[11] Etymonline notes that in educated use the stress fell on the last syllable,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford gives both pronunciations.^[2]

Timeline

• 1555 – mama, one's mother.^[11][3]
• 1579 – mamma, in Lyly's Euphues.^[1]
• 1810 – a form of address to an older woman (US and Caribbean).^[11]
• 1916 – slang, a wife, girlfriend or attractive woman.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mother; a child's word for one's mother.^[3][4][2]
2. (slang) A woman, especially a wife or an attractive woman.^[3][4]

mamma² breast, mammary gland

Etymology

The anatomical term is borrowed from Latin mamma (“breast, udder”),^{[11][2][1][6][4]} the same Latin word that also meant mother.^[1][3][9] Old English had already borrowed it as mamme (“teat, breast”),^[13][14][15] which glossed Latin papillas,^[13] and the OED dates the word from the Old English Prudentius glosses.^[11] Barnhart and Hoad, however, date the anatomical term only from the 17th century.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A breast or udder; a mammary gland: Old English, in the Prudentius glosses.^[11] Barnhart's first date is 1693.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed a technical term of anatomy and zoology, for the milk-secreting organ of female mammals and the undeveloped organ in males.^[2][3] In meteorology the plural mammae also names rounded, breast-shaped bulges on the underside of a cloud.^[4] The adjective mammary is recorded from the 17th century.^[6]

Timeline

• Old English – mamme, a teat or breast, in glosses.^[11][13]
• 1693 – the anatomical term in Latin form.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The milk-secreting gland of female mammals, such as the breast in women or the udder in cows; a mammary gland, also present in males in undeveloped form.^[3][4][2]
2. (meteorology) In the plural, rounded, breast-shaped bulges hanging from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud.^[4]

Word family

• mammary
• mammilla
• mammiferous
• mammogram
• mammectomy

Related words

• mama
• mammy
• mom
• mum
• ma
• papa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
14. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House