mama
Pluralmamas
- 1A person's mother; a female parent.
The toddler reached up and wailed until his mama picked him up.
Mama always said we would find our way home.
Similarmother, mom, mum, ma, mommy
Note
Baby talk is the source, perhaps helped along by Middle English mome, a word for a mother or an aunt, and Latin mamma is a distant relative. In the US and Canada it is a child's word that adults keep using fondly, in families and in songs such as Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U. As a name for one's own mother it takes a capital and no article: Mama said we could stay.
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Origin
Originally from baby talk, possibly influenced by Middle English mome ("mother, aunt"), from Old English *mōme, which goes back through Proto-Germanic *mōmǭ to Proto-Indo-European *méh₂-méh₂, a doubling of *méh₂- ("mother"). Related words include German Muhme ("aunt"), Latin mamma ("mother, nurse"), Irish mam ("mother") and Lithuanian mama, moma ("mother").