Mammy
noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 mamma; mother childish
- 2 informal terms for a mother wordnet
- 3 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. US, historical, often, pejorative
"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."
- 4 an offensive term for a Black nursemaid in the southern U.S. wordnet
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
From mam + -y.
Related phrases
More for "mammy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.