amah - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
amah (plural amahs)
- (India) A woman employed to look after children; (formerly) a wet nurse.
- (Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia) A female domestic helper; a maid.
- ✤ Then one day he disappeared and when Luke called apprehensively at his apartment the old amah told him that ‘Whisky Papa runrun London fastee.’1
Etymology
From Portuguese ama (“female nurse”), from Medieval Latin amma (“wet nurse, amma”), perhaps an alteration of Latin mamma, of imitative origin, or from Ancient Greek.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ˈɑː.mə/
- (Singapore English) IPA: /ˈɑː.mɑ/
- Rhymes: -ɑːmə
Printed 2026-09-15.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Footnotes
-
1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 20: ↩