mamá

Forms

mamá f (plural mamás, masculine papá, masculine plural papás)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French maman, adapted to the older máma “mother”: the Spanish word kept its form and took the French stress on the last syllable.^[2][3][4] The DRAE of 2001 and Wiktionary call it an adaptation of the French word, while the present DLE derives it from the native word with only the stress taken from French.^[5][1][2] Corominas says the Frenchified court made the new stress fashionable in the 18th century, and Gómez de Silva also dates the French influence to that century.^[3][6][7]

The older word continues Latin mamma (“mother; breast”) and is as old as the language: it is frequent in the Mozarabic poems of the 11th and 12th centuries.^[3][6] The French word is also from children's speech, perhaps influenced by the Latin word.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives no first text for the stressed form: he says only that the court put it in fashion in the 18th century and that the Academy admitted it in 1803.^[3][6] The native stress máma is assured by the metre in verses of Tirso and of 1653, and a writer of 1589 says that the first thing children learn to say to their mothers is mama.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Academy accepted mamá in 1803, but the older stress mama is still alive in most of the Americas and much of Spain, for example in Asturias and Almería, as a rustic or familiar form.^[3] In the Academy's dictionary of 1884 mama with the native stress was an entry for the “mother” of children's speech, and the 1899 edition sends mamá to it.^[9][10] Today the DLE gives mamá for a woman with respect to her children and for the mother of an animal, and marks mama in this sense as popular.^[2][11] Vox notes that mama is losing ground to mamá.^[12]

In Mexico mamá is used to address a little girl affectionately.^[13][1] In Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama la mamá de Tarzán means “the most important thing”, and in Puerto Rico mamá can mean a pretty girl.^[13][14] The word was borrowed into Tagalog, Cebuano and Central Bikol as mama.^[1]

Timeline

• 11th–12th century – Mozarabic mámma “mother” in the kharjas.^[3][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: mama, the mother of children.^[3]
• 1700s – the court makes the stress mamá fashionable.^[3][6]
• 1803 – the Academy admits mamá.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary has mama as the word children use for “mother”.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy enters mamá as a familiar word, sending it to mama.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often colloquial) mum, mom: a woman with respect to her children: Mi mamá trabaja en un hospital.^[2][1]
2. (often colloquial) The mother of an animal.^[2]
3. (Mexico) A term of affection for a little girl or a woman.^[13][1]

Related words

• papá
• mama
• madre
• French maman

Usage notes

The plural is mamás;^[1][15] Garzón (1910) noted the Argentine mamaes as an error.^[1][15] In La Palma (Canaries) mamá without an article refers to the speaker's own mother when talking to people who are not his or her siblings.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. mamá
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 791
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mamá
5. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. mamá
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mama
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 439
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. maman
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 667
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 625
11. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. mama
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. mamá
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mamá
14. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. mamá
15. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 294
16. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. mamá