Grammas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colloquial or informal term referring to multiple grandmothers or elderly women in a familial context; a plural form sometimes used to denote several grandmother figures within a family or community; an affectionate or casual way to address or refer to one or more grandmothers collectively
2. Informal plural designation for grandmothers used in familial or intimate conversations; a term encompassing several elderly female relatives known as grandmothers; a nonstandard or vernacular term used in speech and writing to describe multiple grandmotherly figures
3. A familiar or affectionate plural noun indicating more than one grandmother; a casual expression for several elder female relatives who are grandmothers; a term used informally to collectively name grandmothers in a group or family setting

Etymology: "Grammas" is the plural of "gramma," which is a pronunciation spelling of "grandma" (the spelling reflects how the word is said in casual speech, with the "nd" dropped). The spelling "gramma" has a separate and unrelated origin, though it is easy to mistake for a sign of Greek roots. It comes from Ancient Greek "grámma," meaning a written character or letter, from the verb "graphein," to write. English "gram" descends from the same Greek word, so the two are doublets, the same word arriving by different routes. The pairing is therefore a coincidence of spelling. The grandmother sense has nothing to do with writing, and the reshaping into "gramma" is simply how the family term has been written to match ordinary pronunciation.

Synonyms: groupers