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
listen
kala Asi
jan Lakuse
sitelen pona
mamahead radical; perhaps the smaller circle representing the child
sitelen sitelen
sitelen jelo
🍼
sitelen Emosi
👪
ucsur
U+F1931