mammula

Forms

mammula f (genitive mammulae); first declension^[1][2] Inscriptions also spell it mamula, and the Tironian notes have mammola.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mamma (“breast; mother”), with the diminutive suffix -ula.^[1][3][4] The TLL connects Spanish mambla with it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro first uses it, of the two small teats hanging under the chin of she-goats: sub rostro duas ut mammulas pensiles habeant (“so that they have two little hanging teats under the muzzle”).^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides a small breast or teat, which Celsus also has,^[2][4] it was a children's word, “mammy”: inscriptions use it of a nurse or foster-mother, perhaps also of a mother or grandmother.^[1][4] In British Medieval Latin, Adelard of Bath used it for the nipple-shaped bodies on the olfactory nerve.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the teats of goats.^[1][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a small breast.^[2][4][5]
• 1–130 AD – Dated inscriptions have the word.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small teat or nipple.^[1][2][8]
2. (children's language) A nurse, foster-mother; perhaps a mother or grandmother, “mammy”.^[1][2][4]
3. (Medieval Latin, anatomy) A nipple-shaped body on the olfactory nerve.^[6]

Related words

• mammalis

Usage notes

Mammula was also a Roman cognomen, borne by members of the Cornelian family in Livy.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ Kaše, Vojtěch; Heřmánková, Petra; Sobotková, Adéla et al. (2024), LIST: Latin Inscriptions in Space and Time, v1.2 (EDCS + EDH), Aarhus: SDAM, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10473706
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org