mama

mama · noun, interjection, verb¹

The origin of the noun is uncertain; it is probably a reduplication of ma, thought to be a sound made by babies when breastfeeding. The word is possibly influenced by Middle French maman (“mother”) (modern French maman), mamme (both probably from Latin mamma (“breast; nurse; (childish) mother, mama; grandmother”), probably cognate with Ancient Greek μᾰ́μμη (mắmmē, “breast; (childish) mother, mama; (Koine) grandmother”), both possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂- (“to nurse; mama, mother”)), but this is also uncertain as all the words could have developed independently as onomatopoeias. Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“(Caribbean) used as a term of address for a woman”) is possibly partly from a West African language; compare Akan mmá, mmaa (“woman”). The interjection and verb are derived from the noun.

mama · noun²

1. Zulu · borrowed fromumama
2. Xhosa · borrowed fromumama
3. English todaymama

Borrowed from Xhosa umama and Zulu umama, sometimes only distinguishable from English mama (see etymology 1) by the context and pronunciation.