mamma

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈmam.ma]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmam.ma]^[1]

Forms

mamma f (genitive mammae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a nursery word, a reduplicated labial nasal with /a/, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mama.^[2][1] Similar words are found everywhere: Ancient Greek μάμμη (mámmē, “mother”), Welsh mam (“mother”), Lithuanian mama (“mother”), Russian мама (mama, “mother”) and Sanskrit माम (māma-, “uncle”).^[2][3] Wiktionary allows a borrowing from Greek.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus, who has a mother who gave the breast.^[2][4][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was the breast, the female breast and the udder of animals, and mammam dare was to suckle a child, as in Plautus and Terence.^[3][5] It was also a breast-shaped swelling on a plant, a bud.^[3] As a nursery word it meant “mummy”, as Varro says children call their mother mamma and their father tata, and also a grandmother.^[3]

Döderlein distinguishes mamma, the visible breast, from ūber, the nourishing udder.^[6] The word survives in Italian mamma and Romanian mamă, and English mamma is recorded from the 1570s.^[1][7] Late Latin mammālis “of the breast” gave Linnaeus' Mammalia in 1758 and English mammal in 1826.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of a mother giving the breast.^[3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro says children call their mother mamma.^[3][4]
• 1758 – Linnaeus coins Mammalia.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A breast, (of animals) an udder, teat.^[3]
2. A breast-shaped bud on a plant.^[3]
3. (nursery word) Mother, mummy; grandmother.^[3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A nurse.^[8]

Word family

• bimammius
• mamilla
• mammālis
• mammātus
• mammeātus
• mammicula
• mammō
• mammōsus
• mammula
• būmammus
• unimammae
• ūnomammius

Related words

• mammothreptus
• anus
• māter
• nonnus
• ūber
• tata
• English mamma
• English mammal

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes mamma (the breast as a visible part of the body) from ūber (the breast as nourishing, an udder).^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill