mama

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meaning

parent, ancestor; creator, originator; caretaker, sustainer, guardian

semantic space · lipamanka

A mama is a parent, ancestor, caretaker, or creator. My great-great-great grandparent can be a mama to me, even if I never even met them. Just the same, an uncle or an aunt or a cousin could all be mama, but if I'm an adult and I'm talking about my baby cousin, I'm probably not going to call them mama. mama is somewhat about hierarchy, but it isn't about power. It's about caretaking. This doesn't always have to do with age. A worker at a nursing home could be a mama. Another fun example of mama is a tree that bares fruit. If all of the seeds are its children, then the tree could be mama! Thinking about mama like this can be fun and allows a lot of freedom in exploring its semantic space.

ku translations

parent100, parental90, mama88, mommy80, mom75, creator53, mother50, foster44, originator43, father40, daddy38, founder30, dad25

pu verbatim

NOUN parent, ancestor; creator, originator; caretaker, sustainer

usage

core · 100% usage

found in pu

coined pre-pu

origin

Georgian · მამა mama ‘father’

coined by jan Sonja

sitelen pona

mama

head radical; perhaps the smaller circle representing the child

sitelen sitelen

mama sitelen sitelen

sitelen jelo

🍼

sitelen Emosi

👪

ucsur

U+F1931

audio

kala Asi

jan Lakuse

luka pona

gif · mp4