Nona

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An individual who has achieved the status of a grandmother within a family, often associated with various roles and responsibilities related to grandchildren
2. A term denoting a maternal grandmother or a woman in a familial lineage, typically signifying warmth and nurturing qualities
3. A woman who has given birth to multiple children, particularly highlighting her role as a matriarch in a familial context

Etymology: "Nona" is "anon" spelled backwards, and that is the whole of its story. Its meaning, relating to grandmothers, is a separate and entirely unrelated matter: the word is an adjective built on the spelling trick rather than on any grandmother-related root. "Anon" is an older English word meaning "soon" or "presently," and the backwards form reads as a playful invention. Because the reversed spelling produces a word that looks like it belongs to the Latin-derived family of words for grandmothers, such as the Italian "nonna" and the Latin "nonna," readers often assume a borrowing from those languages. The reversal, however, comes from English "anon," and the resemblance to "nonna" is coincidental in its origin.

Synonyms: ninth, nona-