Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Mother.
- noun Offensive A black nursemaid, especially one formerly in the southern United States.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
stone-lugger , 2. - noun Mother; mama: a childish word.
- noun Hence In the southern United States, especially during the existence of slavery, a colored female nurse; a colored woman having the care of white children, who often continue to call her mammy after they are grown up.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A child's name for mamma, mother.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun childish
mamma ;mother - noun US, historical In the southern
United States , ablack nanny employed to look afterwhite children.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an offensive term for a Black nursemaid in the southern U.S.
- noun informal terms for a mother
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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"I'm a poor little beggar, my mammy is dead," and mine, entitled the "Crippled Child's" Complaint –
Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor 1874
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"Well, child, it does sound mighty strange; the people here will laugh at you, child, but I guess it won't be long before this old woman you call mammy will take herself off from a person who has so long held her in bondage."
Uncle Robin, in his cabin in Virginia, and Tom without one in Boston 1853
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She was both revered as "Mammy Pleasant" (in Cliff's novel, she cleverly presents a "mammy"-like M.E.P. playing the part while shrewdly smuggling fugitive slaves, whom she hid in her various houses and real-estate property, and moving about strategically in her militant support of the Harper's Ferry raid) and reviled as a "Voodoo Queen" (of course any black woman with that kind of power must have been putting spells on everyone, right?)
Emerging from the Shadows of History: Mary Ellen Pleasant Anxious Black Woman 2008
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The whole family ... mammy, pappy, the free loadin 'mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin', and especially ‘lil cuz ...
Malia wears a t-shirt with a peace symbol on it. Right wing scum take offence. The Nag 2009
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Beaufort by de Rhett family, when my mammy was a little pickaninny.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives, Part 2 Work Projects Administration
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When I was a little boy I was a house boy, 'cause my mammy was the house woman, but when the war broke I already been sent to the fields and mammy was still at de house.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Oklahoma Narratives Work Projects Administration
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My mammy was a Crossland negro before she come to belong to Master Joe and marry my pappy, and I think she come wid old Mistress and belong to her.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Oklahoma Narratives Work Projects Administration
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In the whole world (it was all she had asked) there was no white child to call her mammy, no white lackey or gentleman (it was the extent of her dreams) beholden to her as to a nurse.
Balcony Stories Grace E. King
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"I guessed as much," said he, "yer see, after he got nabbed first, mammy she -- yer didn't know as mammy took an 'died, did yer, Bill?" and Joey faltered and let the Angel take possession of his cap and transfer it to her own curly head while the Tenement children applauded with jeering commendation, seeing there was a standing feud between Joey and the rest of the juvenile populace over its possession.
The Angel of the Tenement George Madden Martin 1901
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Den he whisper soft an 'low widout any words, jes' like a mammy was a-singin 'to her baby.
Citizen Bird Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain English for Beginners Elliott Coues 1870
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