mammy

Etymology

It is probably formed from English mam + -y^[2][3][4][5] or from mama with the ending remodelled after -y, although both mam and mama are recorded slightly later.^[6] Merriam-Webster calls it an alteration of mamma,^[7] and the American Heritage Dictionary derives it from dialectal mam, a variant of mama.^[8] Barnhart takes mam as probably from children's speech.^[2] The OED compares daddy,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English compare mommy and mummy.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

One's mother, a child's word for her: 1523, in Skelton's Garland of Laurel.^[6][2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Scotland the word was used from 1618 for a wet nurse or foster mother, later only in Shetland.^[6] The English Dialect Dictionary found mammy as a child's name for its mother all over Scotland, Ireland and England,^[9] and the Dictionary of American Regional English records it chiefly in the South and South Midland of the United States.^[10] In the southern United States, especially before the abolition of slavery, it was used from 1837 of a Black woman who looked after white children,^[6][11] who often went on calling her mammy as adults.^[11] Green's Dictionary of Slang describes the figure as the ideal Black woman as white people stereotyped her, typically a nanny or cook in a white household, and notes that Hurston in 1942 defined the word simply as an insult.^[12] Dictionary.com notes that from the Civil War into the 20th century the Southern mammy was portrayed as strong, kind and loyal but also as an overweight, unattractive and often illiterate household slave, an image that reinforced racial stereotypes of inferiority and servility.^[13] Merriam-Webster labels the use for any Black woman disparaging and offensive.^[7] In West African English mammy became a word for any woman, as in the compounds mammy chair, a basket or chair for hoisting women traders on board ships, and mammy wagon, a small open lorry carrying market women.^[6] In American colloquial use it was also an exclamation of surprise or pleasure (1942),^[6] and in underworld slang money's mammy meant a great deal of money (1942).^[12]

Timeline

• 1523 – one's mother.^[6][7][2]
• 1618 – in Scotland, a wet nurse or foster mother.^[6]
• 1837 – in the southern United States, a Black woman caring for white children.^[6][11]
• 1904 – in West African use, in compounds such as mammy chair.^[14]
• 1942 – as an exclamation of surprise or pleasure; in slang, an abundance.^[6][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) A child's word for mother: She ran crying to her mammy.^{[15][13][7][6]}
2. (offensive) Formerly, in the southern United States, a Black woman employed as a nurse to white children or as a servant to a white family; the stereotype of such a woman.^{[15][13][7][6]}
3. (disparaging and offensive) A Black woman.^[7][3]

Related words

• mam
• mama
• mamma
• mommy
• mummy

Usage notes

Collins, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster label the sense "Black nursemaid" offensive or disparaging,^[15][13][7] and the Shorter Oxford marks the general use for a Black woman as offensive.^[3] The 1989 edition of the OED and the Shorter Oxford treat the West African compounds (mammy boat, mammy chair, mammy wagon) as a separate word, of unknown origin in the Shorter Oxford,^[14][3] but the revised OED explains them from the West African use of mammy for any woman.^[6] In Huntingdonshire dialect a separate mammy meant a shapeless, crushed mass.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b 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)
10. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins