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What is "amah"

Crossword clues for amah

amah
The Collaborative International Dictionary
amah

amah \amah\ n.

  1. a woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

    Syn: wet nurse

  2. a female domestic.

    Syn: maid, maidservant, housemaid

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
amah

"wet-nurse," 1839, Anglo-Indian, from Portuguese ama "nurse," from Medieval Latin amma "mother," from PIE root *am-, forming nursery words.

Wiktionary
amah

n. 1 A woman employed to look after children in India; a wet nurse. 2 A maid in China and other parts of Asia.

WordNet
amah

  1. n. a woman hired to suckle a child of someone else [syn: wet nurse, wet-nurse, wetnurse]

  2. a female domestic [syn: maid, maidservant, housemaid]

Wikipedia
Amah (occupation)

An amah or ayah (, , Medieval Latin: amma; or ayah Hindi: āyā or amma, , Latin: avia, Tagalog: yaya) is a girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after children, and perform other domestic tasks.

Amah

Amah may refer to:

  • Amah, a unit of measurement described in the Bible (See Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement.)
  • Amah, a term for "mother" in several contexts
  • Amah (occupation), the Chinese or south Asian term for a girl or woman employed as a domestic servant
  • Amah, an informal and poetic title for the Taoist goddess, the Queen Mother of the West, during the T'ang dynasty in China
  • Amah Rock, a rock located on a hilltop in southwest Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Amah (mother)

Amah is a term for " mother" in several different languages and contexts.

Amah is the Mosuo term for mother. In Mosuo, the word ammah or anmah means "mother", and ayah has an identical meaning in the Okinawan dialect.

Another similar word is ima (אמא, pronounced ), the Hebrew word for "mother".

In Chinese, amah ("grandmother") is often used as an equivalent of the English word "nanny"—the term does not refer to a wet nurse or a servant, but rather, like a nanny, a "friend" who helps a family to raise a child. This is a common profession in China.

During the T'ang dynasty in China, the word Amah was used as an informal and poetic title for the Taoist goddess Queen Mother of the West.

Usage examples of "amah".

Once her sisters and the amah left the room, Nicola slumped on a chair.

The amah wore a midnight blue sari embroidered with silver threat and a necklace of rubies.

Her muscles tensed in anticipation of the pain the amah and her grandmother had told her she faced.

Drew had become angry but she had to stop him before he invaded her tense body and caused the pain her grandmother and the amah had predicted.

When the amah saw the nearly full cup on he table, she clicked her tongue.

The amah ignored the order and whipped the top covers aside to expose the sheet.

Finally, in despair at my moroseness, the driver landed me at Amah Rock.

She rose from the carpet as an old amah came to enfold her in a dressing gown.

Appalled but fascinated by the bound feet of her amah and other Chinese women, she understood, even as a child, that this barbaric custom symbolized male supremacy.

I was glued to my keyhole, mesmerized, as Fatty piped some command and a score of amahs clacked forward to parade the girls.

The thing to do is treat ghosts as incidental, or the amahs vanish for good.

I found myself inside her royal suite with the doors closing behind me and two amahs coming at me to take off my jacket and pulling me gently towards the private steam room.

Chinese and Malay amahs, Koepanger houseboys or Japanese house staff watched over the young children or pushed babies in high-wheeled English prams.

Those with normal feet were peasants, servants, low-class prostitutes, amahs or workers, and despised.

Ah Sam rushed about officiously and hugged the children, who were waiting in the house with their personal amahs, and propped May-may in the huge bed and brought the children to her.