| 释义 |
▪ I. mamma1, mama|məˈmɑː|
[A reduplicated syllable often uttered instinctively by young children, who are in many countries taught to use it as their word for ‘mother’ (esp. where the ordinary word in the language begins with m).
The Indogermanic type *mammā, as a child's word for mother, is found as Gr. µάµµη, L. mamma (whence It. mamma), OSl., Russian mama, Lith. mama, Irish mam (O'Brien); also in Welsh mam, which is the only word for ‘mother’, though modr- survives in some compounds. The F. maman (Cotgr. 1611 mammam), like the earlier mam-ma (1584 in Hatz.-Darm.), appears to be an independent adoption of the instinctive infantine utterance; the Sp. mamá, Pg. mamãe, may perhaps be from French.
Apart from the two 16th c. quots. in which the word is used with reference to a child's first attempt to speak, the Eng. mamma has not been found earlier than near the end of the 17th c., after which time it rapidly became common. The Eng. word of the 17–18th c. (rimed by Shadwell with awe) prob. represents a spoken form adopted from the F. maman; the spelling may have been suggested by Latin or It., or it may possibly have been originally meant to express the native English form |ˈmamə, ˈmɒmə|, which is still current in many dialects. In educated use, so far as is known, the stress has in England always been on the last syllable; in the United States, however, the stress ˈmamma is the more usual; a prevailing U.S. pronunciation is represented by the spelling momma. The spelling mama, sometimes used in the 18th c., became somewhat common after 1800, and is especially frequent in the novels printed c 1830–50. It is now rare.]
a. A word employed as the equivalent of mother: chiefly used in the vocative, or preceded by a possess. pronoun (as ‘my mamma’); also without article in the manner of a proper name (e.g. ‘Mamma is well’); less usually with a, the, or in pl.
The status of the word has always been the same as that of papa1. In the 18th c., although ˈmamma as used by young children was probably common, maˈmma seems to have been confined to the higher classes, and among them to have been freely used not only by children but by adults of both sexes. In the 19th c. its use was much extended, and among the lower middle class was a mark of ‘gentility’. Latterly it has in England become unfashionable, even as used by children.
[1555Eden Decades 44 They were turned into frogges, and cryed toa, toa, that is, mama, mama, as chyldren are wont to crye for the mothers pappe.] 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 129 When the babe shall now begin to tattle and call hir Mamma, with what face can she heare it of his mouth, vnto whom she hath denyed Mamma? 1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. ii. §7. 191 The Ideas of the Nurse, and the Mother are well framed in their Minds... The names of Nurse and Mamma, the Child uses, determine themselves to those Persons. 1691Shadwell Scowrers Epil., How can one stand in awe Of a vain Tawdry, Amorous Mamma? 1710E. Ward Brit. Hud. iii. 26 So the sweet Babe of Early Wit, To please Mamma does Daddy beat. 1727Gay Begg. Op. i. viii. (1729) 11 My Mama drinks double the quantity. 1728P. Walker Life Alex. Peden in Biog. Presb. (1827) I. 140 Our..old Scots Names are gone out of Request; instead of Father and Mother, Mamma and Papa, training Children to speak Nonsense. 1748Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. clxxi. 132 At which I am uneasy not as a Mamma would be, but as a Father should be. 1758Eliz. Rose in Family Rose Kilravock (Spald. Club) 431 Papa and mamma are well. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. (ed. 2) 94 Tony. Alack, mama, it was all your own fault. 1811L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. (1812) I. 52 Poor Tom must shift with his outgrown Coat, because Papa has just given Mama a row of pearls. a1814Fam. Politics iii. iv. in New Brit. Theatre (1814) II. 224 Edw... One more trial, my delightful mama. Lady Jez. How often have I told you not to apply that vulgar appellation to me? 1819Byron Juan i. xlviii, I can't but say that his mamma was right. 1838Lytton Alice i. vi, You should make your mamma take you to town. 1848Dickens Dombey xxxv, Florence is ready to receive her father and her new mama. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 241 [I read my] work to papa and mamma at breakfast next morning, as a girl shows her sampler.
b. Used as a prefixed title.
17..Sir J. Marriot in Dodsley Coll. Poems (1755) IV. 289 The cruel Fates their rage relented, And mama Venus had consented.
c. fig. (jocular only).
1844Thackeray May Gambols Wks. 1900 XIII. 443 The exhibition of the New Society..has grown to be quite as handsome..as that of its mamma, the old Society in Pall Mall East.
d. Mam(m)a mia! [It., lit. ‘mother mine!’]: an exclamation expressing surprise or astonishment.
1848Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton II. iii. 47 The little hopeless stranger..spoke in some foreign tongue, with low cries for the far distant ‘Mamma mia!’ 1969G. Greene Trav. with my Aunt i. vii. 72 There came a strange grating noise. ‘Mamma mia,’ the nurse said, ‘what's that?’ 1971R. Falkirk Chill Factor x. 94 ‘It rain every day?’ asked the Italian. ‘Every day,’ I said. ‘Mama mia,’ he said.
e. Comb.: mamma-in-law jocular = mother-in-law; mamma-pian [F. maman pian], a ‘mother’ tubercle of the disease known as ‘yaws’; a ‘yaw’; mamma's boy, a boy who has been pampered and spoiled; one who is excessively timid; also applied to a man.
1850C. M. Yonge Henrietta's Wish xiii. 183, I would not give a farthing for Fred if he was always to be the mamma's boy you would make him. 1855Thackeray Newcomes II. 259 Recalling some of mamma-in-law's dreadful expressions which make me shudder when I hear them. 1861C. M. Yonge Young Step-Mother xxiii. 336 It might be no great harm if Maurice were a tame mamma's boy. 1895C. Holland Jap. Wife (ed. 11) 36, I do not altogether like my mamma-in-law. 1889Syd. Soc. Lex., Mama pian. 1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxvii. 428 note, A large persistent yaw is sometimes known as the ‘mother’, ‘grandmother’ or ‘mama-pian’. 1929W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 141 Yah..go on then, mamma's boy. If he goes swimming he'll get his head wet and then he'll get a licking. 1967A. M. Stein Executioner's Rest vi. 100 Who was this Erridge? He was mama's boy, and if you don't know the kind of trouble mama's boy tourists go looking for when they're loose on the shores of the Mediterranean, you just haven't travelled.
Hence mamma v., to call by the name of ‘mamma’.
1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 359 Pris. will Mamma-up Mrs. Sinclair.
Senses a–e in Dict. become 1 a–c, 3, 4. Add: 2. (With pronunc. |ˈmɑːmə|.) In more general senses (orig. Black English). a. As a title or term of address for a woman, esp. an older woman. U.S. and W. Indies colloq.
In many instances a term of respect.
1810J. Lambert Trav. L. Canada & U.S. II. xxxvii. 414 An old negro woman is called momma, which is a broad pronunciation of mama. 1835A. B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes 110 ‘Aunt’ and ‘mauma’, or ‘maum’,..are terms of respect, commonly used by children, to aged negroes. a1843Southey Comm. -pl. Bk. (1851) IV. 4 Mango Capac and Mama Oella his sister-wife. 1956in Cassidy & Le Page Dict. Jamaican Eng. (1967) 283/1 /Mama/, a term of address used in speaking (familiarly) to any woman;..a term of address used to a strange woman. 1982Dict. Bahamian Eng. 129/2 Mama,..a term of address for an older, respected woman (especially by Haitians).
b. A wife or girlfriend; a sexually attractive woman; a promiscuous woman. See also red-hot momma s.v. red-hot a. 2 a, sweet mama s.v. sweet a. and adv. C. 1 a. slang (chiefly U.S.).
1925College Humor Aug. 100/2 It is the picture of a red-headed mama, and the reader is supposed to identify her with the heroine, Minnie, herself. The author..claims that Min is a comely damsel..whose only equipment for stardom is beauty. 1926C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 286 Mama, mistress or wife. 1927Wodehouse Meet Mr. Mulliner vi. 179 What would I do supposing the Jane on whom I had always looked as a steady mamma had handed me the old skimmer? 1980Times 20 June 4/4 She denied ever being at an impromptu or organized gathering where there was a ‘mama’ present, someone available to the whole group for sexual intercourse. 1984A. Lurie Foreign Affairs (1985) ii. 34 When I meet a mama who turns me on, I lay it on the line.
▪ II. ‖ mamma2|ˈmæmə|
Pl. -æ.
[L.]
The milk-secreting organ of the female in man and the other mammalia. Also the corresponding but non-secreting structure in males.
c1050Prudentius Gloss. in Germania (1878) XI. 401 In papillas, an mamman. 1693in tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Mamma, a Breast, Pap, or Teat. 1727Bailey vol. II, Mamma [with anatomists], a Breast, Pap or Teat; also a Dug in Cattle. 1795[see mammary 1]. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 21 In the mamma they [the vessels] seem to be rather large than numerous. 1845Chambers Vestiges (ed. 4) 198 The mammæ of the human female..also exist in the male. 1871Darwin Desc. Man I. i. 17 The mammæ of male quadrupeds. 1887Butlin in Brit. Med. Jrnl. I. 573/1 The very free removal of the mamma..recommended by Mr. Banks [etc.]. 1887Athenæum 8 Jan. 66/2 The pectoral position of the mammæ in the Sirenia..gave rise to the legend of the mermaid. |