Monday, July 1, 2019

meaning - Difference between Grandma and Grandma-ma?



This is my first question here so please be gentle with me. I have a relative staying with me from Mississippi who says things about manners and behavior in reference to his grandma-ma. It goes a little like.




My grandma-ma always said X.




or





My grandma-ma raised me better than to do X.




Now I've just kind of assumed that grandma-ma was a southern way of saying grandma but recently I've been lead to believe that it refers to a great-grandmother.



Sadly my relative has continued their travels and I don't have a way of touching base with them to ask.



Can someone explain to me this difference and maybe include a source where I can find out more about how it came to be. Running a google search on this kind of took me to a bunch of places that didn't answer my question.


Answer




" Grandmama is an archaic form of grandma according to the http://www.oxforddictionaries.com which is is another name for a grandmother, or the mother of one's father or mother.""a grandmother; an old woman"", from ""grand"" (adjective) + ""dame"".



An interesting etymology of the word 'mama'. 1707, spelling variant of mamma. Meaning ""sexually attractive woman"" first recorded 1925 in African-American vernacular; mama's boy ""soft, effeminate male"" is from 1901. Hve a look at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mama
But the word Grandmama was dated by 1749.


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