mammy

• mammie

From mam +‎ -y.

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -æmi

mammy (plural mammies)

1. (childish) mamma; mother
2. (US, historical, often pejorative) In the southern United States, a black nanny employed to look after white children; or in the antebellum South, a female slave who was close to the household and looked after the children.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     That's what you for—to help white folks keep niggers down. That's why he sent you to me. They be calling you mammy in a few years. You be running the whole house when the old man dies.

mammy f (plural mammys)

1. alternative spelling of mamie

• IPA^(key): /ˈmam.mɘ/
• Rhymes: -ammɘ
• Syllabification: mam‧my

mammy

1. first-person plural imperative of mamić