Momma

Momma

Noun · /ˈmɒm.ə/

Definition

An informal or dialectal term for mother, particularly in American English; an affectionate or childish form of address for one's mother; in some contexts, used to refer to a woman who is maternal, large, or authoritative.

Origin

A reduplication and infantile alteration of mama (from baby talk, reduplicating the ma sound — one of the first consonant-vowel combinations that infants produce, present across many unrelated languages: mama in English, French, Spanish; maman in French; Mutter in German but with the m sound; mā in Mandarin). The mama/momma/mom family being examples of how infant phonology shapes the words for mother across languages. Momma being the American English variant, mama and mum/mummy being the British equivalents, and the variation reflecting regional phonological patterns.