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

Ultimately from Arabic أَمَّا‎ (ʾammā).

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

amma

1. wet nurse
2. nanny

• ammata (“tend to a child”)

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

From Arabic أَمَّا‎ (ʾammā).

• 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”).

amma f (genitive ammae); first declension

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.

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

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) amma; a spiritual mother or abbess in early monasticism, a Desert Mother

   Vita Ammae Talidae ― The Life of Amma Talida

   Coordinate term: abba

First-declension noun.

• 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., 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, published 1957, page 13

• (of noun) ammen
• (of verb) ammet

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”), from Proto-Indo-European *amma (“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

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

ámmà

1. father

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

amma

1. yet

• ama
• âmâ