μάμμη

Forms

μᾰ́μμη (mámmē) f (genitive μᾰ́μμης, diminutive μᾰμμῐ́ᾱ); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a nursery word, formed from the reduplicated baby-talk vocative μάμμα (mámma).^[2][1][3] Similar words are found in many languages, among them Latin mamma (“mother, nurse, grandmother, breast”), Alemannic German Mamme, Lithuanian mamà and Russian мама (máma).^[2][3] Beekes compares the related Greek nursery words μᾶ (mâ) and μαῖα (maîa), and refers to μήτηρ (mḗtēr) and μαστός (mastós).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest writer to use it is the comic poet Pherecrates (5th century BC), for “mother” in family speech; in Aristophanes' Clouds a child cries for its “mamma”.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In comedy and everyday speech it was the child's word for its mother, as in Theophrastus and Menander.^[6][2] From the Hellenistic period it came to mean “grandmother”, the sense in the Septuagint, the papyri, Philo and Plutarch.^[2][6][7] Arrian uses it for the mother's breast.^[2] In the New Testament Paul's second letter to Timothy names Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice side by side.^[7]

The word lived on in Medieval Greek, and a form μαμμή with the stress moved to the end appeared by the 7th century.^[8][9] The later form μάμα gave the common Modern Greek μαμά (mamá, “mum”).^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Pherecrates uses it for “mother”, and Aristophanes has a child cry for its mother.^[2][4][5]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus and Menander use it as a family word for mother.^[6][4]
• 1st century BC – A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus uses it for “grandmother”.^[7]
• 1st century AD – The second letter to Timothy uses it of Timothy's grandmother.^[7]
• 7th century AD – The form μαμμή, with the stress on the last syllable, is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mamma, mummy: a child's or family word for mother.^[6][2]
2. (Hellenistic) Grandmother.^[6][2][7]
3. The mother's breast.^[2]

Word family

• μαμμία (mammíā)
• μαμμόθρεπτος (mammóthreptos)
• μαμμωνυμικῶς (mammōnumikôs)
• μαμμῷος (mammôios)
• μαμμάω (mammáō)

Related words

• μαῖα (maîa)
• μήτηρ (mḗtēr)
• πάππας (páppas)
• Latin mamma

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας