amma

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌmə/
• Rhymes: -ʌmə

Related to Tamil அம்மா (ammā, “mother”), Hindi अम्मा (ammā), Malayalam അമ്മ (amma), Kannada ಅಮ್ಮ (amma, “mother”) Telugu అమ్మ (amma, “mother”), Sinhalese අම්මා (ammā, “mother”), or Classical Syriac ܐܡܐ (emma, “mother”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

amma (plural ammas)

1. (India) mother

• Widely used in English-speaking expat communities.

• amma canteen

• amah

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin amma, from Classical Syriac ܐܸܡܵܐ (ʾemmā, “mother, abbess”).

amma (plural ammas)

1. (Christianity, historical) An abbess or spiritual mother, especially one of the Desert Mothers.

   Coordinate term: abba

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:amma.

• ma ma, ma'am, mama

Other scripts

Cyrillic		амма
Abjad		اما

Ultimately from Arabic أَمَّا (ʔammā).

• IPA^(key): [ˈɑmːɑ]
• (Karabakh) IPA^(key): [ˈɑmbɑ] (as if spelled amba)

• Audio:

  (file)

amma

1. but

   Synonyms: ancaq, fəqət

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

àmma

1. water

• Alhaji Maina Gimba, Russell G. Schuh, Bole-English-Hausa Dictionary and English-Bole Wordlist
• Takács, Gábor (2007) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201, →ISBN:

  […] we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" [GT]:

  (1) Ch. *h-m "water" [GT]: WCh. *hama [Stl.]: AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) [GT 2004, 153] = *am [Stl. 1977] = *ham [Dlg.] = *ham [Stl. 1987]: […] BT *hama [Stl.] = *am- [Schuh], Bole ˀame [Schuh] = aməi [Schuh] = àmmá [Schuh] […]

• (Revived Late Cornish) abma

From amm (“kiss”).

amma

1. to kiss

From Swedish amma.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑmːɑ/, [ˈɑ̝mːɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -ɑmːɑ
• Hyphenation^(key): am‧ma

amma

1. wet nurse
2. nanny

• ammata (“tend to a child”)

• amme
• ammentaa
• emo
• emä
• ämmi
• ämmä

From Arabic أَمَّا (ʔammā).

• IPA^(key): /ʔàm.máː/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [ʔàm.máː]

àmmā

1. but

From Old Norse amma.

• IPA^(key): /ˈamːa/
• Rhymes: -amːa

amma f (genitive singular ömmu, nominative plural ömmur)

1. grandmother, grandma, granny

• kalla ekki allt ömmu sína
• langamma

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

amma

1. water

• Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN, page 38
• Václav Blažek, A Lexicostatistical comparison of Omotic languages, in In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory: Essays in the four fields of anthropology, page 122

Pokorny^[1] suggests a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *amma-, *ama- (“mother”). Compare Latin amita (“paternal aunt”), Latin anus (“crone”) and Old High German amma (“wet nurse”).

It may also represent an infantile modification of mamma.

amma f (genitive ammae); first declension (Late Latin)

1. a nocturnal bird, perhaps the screech owl
   • c. 600, Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, XII.vii.42:

     Haec avis [viz. strix] vulgo amma dicitur, ab amando parvulos; unde et lac praebere fertur nascentibus.

     This bird is commonly called amma [mum (?)], because it loves its young, and it is also said to offer milk to its hatchlings.

• Based on etymological evidence and the reference to milk in the Isidore quote, it is suspected that this word actually meant “mother”, along similar lines to atta (“father”).

First-declension noun.

• Catalan: ama
• Galician: ama
• Portuguese: ama
• Spanish: ama

From Classical Syriac ܐܸܡܵܐ (ʾemmā, “mother, abbess”) via Koine Greek ἀμμᾶς (ammâs), ἀμμὰ (ammà), perhaps reinforced by Etymology 1.

amma f (genitive ammae); first declension (Late Latin)

1. amma; a spiritual mother or abbess in early monasticism, a Desert Mother

   Coordinate term: abba

   Vita Ammae Talidae ― The Life of Amma Talida

First-declension noun.

• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “ama”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume I (A–Ca), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 226

• amma in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• amma in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Souter, Alexander (1949) “amma”, in A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 A.D.‎^[1], 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, published 1957, page 13

amma

1. to eat
   • 1921, María de los Angeles Colós, José Guzman, and John Peabody Harrington, Chochenyo Field Notes‎^[2]:

     akkwetak hinšušte hinṭoš ek-ammasin

     I don't know what I am going to eat

• María de los Angeles Colós, José Guzman, and John Peabody Harrington (1930s) Chochenyo Field Notes (Survey of California and Other Indian Langauges)‎^[3], Unpublished

• ammen (of noun)
• ammet (of verb)

amma m or f

1. definite feminine singular of amme

amma

1. inflection of amme:
   1. simple past
   2. past participle

amma (present tense ammar, past tense amma, past participle amma, present participle ammande, imperative am)

1. A-infinitive form of amme

amma f

1. definite singular of amme
2. (pre-2012) alternative form of amme

From Proto-Germanic *ammǭ (“mother”).

amma f

1. wet nurse

• German: Amme

From Proto-Germanic *ammǭ (“mother”), from Proto-Indo-European *amma (“mother”).

amma f (genitive ǫmmu, plural ǫmmur)

1. grandmother

• Faroese: omma f
• Icelandic: amma f

• afi (“grandfather”)
• edda (“great-grandmother”)
• ái (“great-grandfather”)

• “amma”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

amma

1. vocative singular of ammā (“mummy”)
2. familiar term of address to a woman

Pali Text Society (1921–1925) “amma”, in Pali-English Dictionary‎, London: Chipstead

From Low German amme; compare with German Amme (“wet nurse”). Verb derived from noun.

• IPA^(key): /²ama/

amma c

1. a wet nurse

• amsaga

amma (present ammar, preterite ammade, supine ammat, imperative amma)

1. to breastfeed

• amning

• bröstmjölk
• modersmjölk

• amma in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• amma in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• amma in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

ámmà

1. father

From Ottoman Turkish اما (amma) from Arabic أَمَّا (ʔammā).

amma

1. yet

• ama
• âmâ