Etymologically
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mamma

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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

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