The corpus record — Latin

mamma

breast, udder; mother

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Moretum, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 12.92/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 1 · 5.88/10k
Epodon 1 · 3.33/10k
Saturae 1 · 2.21/10k
Antoninus Heliogabalus 1 · 1.73/10k
Naturalis Historia 60 · 1.51/10k
Carmina 3 · 1.34/10k
Epigrammata 7 · 1.24/10k
Truculentus 1 · 1.22/10k
De Medicina 12 · 1.17/10k
Menaechmi 1 · 1.05/10k
Adelphi 1 · 1.01/10k

Densest 12 of 32 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. mamma — de Vaan

mamma 'breast, udder; mother' [f. a\ (PL+; VarrcrH) Derivatives: mammia 'breast' (PL), mammeatus 'full-breasted* (PL), mammosus 'large-breasted' (Lab.+), mammula 'nipple' (Varro+), mamilla 'nipple, spout' (Varro+). s Pit. *mam(m)a* PIE *mama. IE cognates: Ir. W. mam 'mother' ; Skt mama- [m.] 'uncle', MoP mam, mama, mami 'mother'; Gr. μάμμα, Ion- Att. μάμμη 'mother', Arm. mam 'grandmother', Alb. meme, Lith. mama, … — [de Vaan, s.v. mamma, p. 375]

2. mamma — Lewis & Short

mamma, ae, f., = ma/mma,

I a breast, pap, esp. of females, rarely of males; also, a teat, dug of animals.

I Lit.: puero isti date mammam, give him the breast, suckle him, Plaut. Truc. 2, 5, 1; id. Trin. 5, 1, 16: puer in gremio matris sedens, mammam appetens, Cic. Div. 2, 41, 85: ubera mammarum, Lucr. 5, 885.—Of a man: mammas homo solus e maribus habet, Plin. 11, 39, 95, § 232; Cic. Fin. 3, 5, 18; Just. 12, 9 fin.—Of animals, Cic. N. D. 2, 51, 18: mammam sugere, Varr. R. R. 2, 1, 20: mammas praebere, Plin. 11, 40, 95, § 234: mamma sterilescit, dries up, id. ib. —

II Transf.

A A protuberance on the bark of a tree, Plin. 17, 16, 26, § 118.—

B In the language of children, mother, mamma: cum cibum ac potionem buas ac papas vocent, matrem mammam, patrem tatam, Varr. ap. Non. 81, 4; Mart. 1, 101, 1. —In inscrr., for mother, Inscr. Orell. 2769; 2813; for grandmother, Inscr. Mur. 1134, 3; for nurse, Inscr. Visc. Mus. Pio-Clem. t. 2, p. 82.

3. mamma — Walde–Hofmann

mamma, -ae f. „Mama, Mutter; Amme“, inschr, auch „Großmutter“ (Wort der Kinder- und Ammensprache, Varro frg. Non. 81, Heraeus Kl. Schr. 160ff.; Dat. mamäni CIL. X 2965, s. Heraeus a. O. 161f., Brüch RLR. 2, 59); , Mutterbrust; Euter, Zitze; warzenartige Erhöhungen an Pflanzen“ (seit Plaut., rom. [sowohl „Mutter“ als „Amme“* und „Mutterbrust“), ebenso mammula f. „Amme; Großmutter; Mutterbrust*, seit Varro [rom. nur … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. mamma, p. 927]

In the wild

mammas Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 24.6.p8
mamma Martial, Epigrammata 1.100.2
mammae Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 20.14.p2
mamma Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 24.13.p5
mammae Martial, Epigrammata 3.72.3
mammam Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 35.10.p10

6 of 112 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. mamma (scan p. 375; entry #990).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. mamma (scan p. 405; entry #6452).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. mamma (scan pp. 927-929; entry #1676). Root candidates: *mä-, *mad-, *menth-.

Downloads

Word record (JSON)·Concordance (CSV)·Frequencies (CSV)·Cite (BibTeX)

CC BY 4.0 with receipt attribution — every file carries its license line. What is exportable

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.