Mummy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈmʌmi/

Definitions

1. An embalmed and preserved human or animal body, especially one from ancient Egypt, or an informal term for one's mother used chiefly by children in British English
2. A preserved body, particularly from ancient Egypt, or a colloquial term for a mother, especially in childish contexts across British English
3. An ancient Egyptian preserved corpse used for burial, or an affectionate term for a mother in casual speech, predominantly in British culture

Etymology: The most surprising thing about this word is that the dead body and the childhood word for "mom" are unrelated. The mummy of the tomb comes from a substance: Persian "mum" meant "wax," and "mumyâ" was a name for a dark, pitch-like or waxy material. Arabic writers took this term as "mūmiyāʔ," and Medieval Latin borrowed it as "mumia," a word that by then referred to medicinal preparations believed to come from embalmed flesh, not to the bodies themselves. The sense shifted westward as European physicians and traders encountered Egyptian burials. Middle French "momie" passed into Anglo-Norman "mumie" and then Middle English "mummie," and the meaning moved from the medicine to the corpse, so that the thing once swallowed as a remedy became the embalmed body people excavated and displayed. Mummy is also a doublet of "mumijo," a form that entered English through a different route and kept the older sense of the substance. The "mum" in the nursery word is a separate, unrelated word, a diminutive of "mom" and "mommy" that grew out of the baby-talk for mother.

Synonyms: embalmed body, corpse, preserved body, sarcophagus, wrap