mammy

mam·my

(măm′ē)

n. pl. mam·mies

1. Mother.

2. Offensive A black nursemaid, especially one formerly in the southern United States.

[From dialectal mam, variant of mama.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mammy

(ˈmæmɪ) or

mammie

n, pl -mies

1. a child's word for mother¹

2. chiefly Southern US a Black woman employed as a nurse or servant to a White family

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mam•my

(ˈmæm i)

n., pl. -mies.

1. Informal. mother ¹.

2. (formerly in the southern U.S.) a black woman engaged as a nurse to white children.

[1515–25]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	mammy - an offensive term for a Black nursemaid in the southern U.S. depreciation - a communication that belittles somebody or something nanny, nursemaid, nurse - a woman who is the custodian of children
	2.	mammy - informal terms for a mother ma, mama, mamma, mom, momma, mommy, mummy, mum female parent, mother - a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother); "the mother of three children"

Translations

bambinaia nera mammina

mammy

[ˈmæmɪ] N

1. → mami f, mamaíta f, mamacita f (LAm)

2. (US) (= black nurse) → nodriza f negra

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

mammy

n (inf) → Mami f (inf); (dated US) → (schwarze) Kinderfrau, schwarze Mami (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

Then she would gather it to her heart and pour out her love upon it in a frenzy of kisses, moaning, crying, and saying, "Dey sha'n't, oh, dey sha'nt'!'--yo' po' mammy will kill you fust!"

Oh, I got to do it, yo' po' mammy's got to kill you to save you, honey." She gathered her baby to her bosom now, and began to smother it with caresses.

Dey ain't no man kin ever sell mammy's po' little honey down de river now!"

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At first there was a little peevish cry of "mammy", and an effort to regain the pillowing arm and bosom; but mammy's ear was deaf, and the pillow seemed to be slipping away backward.

It clung round his neck, and burst louder and louder into that mingling of inarticulate cries with "mammy" by which little children express the bewilderment of waking.

As soon as he had opened it, there was the cry of "mammy" again, which Silas had not heard since the child's first hungry waking.

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He hasn't any faults much, and is charming and sweet, like Buffalo Bill, and Thunder-Bird, and Mammy Dorcas, and Soldier Boy, and Shekels, and Potter, and Sour-Mash, and - well, they're ALL that, just angels, as you may say.

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"Yes, my youngster; so that in that country you'd be toddling after your mammy yet, and that old chap yonder, who looks about fifty, would only be a little shaver of four and a half."

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So I interviewed my Mammy Jennie, my old nurse at whose black breast I had suckled.

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He began to talk early, remembered everything he heard, and his mammy said he `wasn't all wrong.' She named him Samson, because he was blind, but on the plantation he was known as `yellow Martha's simple child.' He was docile and obedient, but when he was six years old he began to run away from home, always taking the same direction.

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The moon rays, streaming in through the open door and windows, gave what light was needed to the old black mammy who stood at the table concocting a tisane of fragrant herbs.

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The child suddenly becoming animated, chattered away in her baby language, something about "mammy" and that "mammy would beat her," and about some cup that she had "bwoken." The child chattered on without stopping.