Re: Common words for man & husband, woman & wife (was: Brothers-in-law)

Mum, can also mean a term for the Queen, or her mother?

Yes Mum, often was used by 19th century servants for an older
lady of the house.. Such as the grandmother of the current
household lord/master..

Master, means the master of the house, or the master of the
slaves, or master of the order, or master of ... many things.
Boss, joke was that Boss was what the often Irish indentured
servants used instead of Master of the other "servants" or
slaves..

Dad, not sure where it came from.. Daddy is the longer form.

But I suspect it is of similar origin to Mutti, in German is the
indearing form of Mother..

Ja Meine Mutti..

Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Newton" <philip.newton@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: Common words for man & husband, woman & wife (was:
Brothers-in-law)


> On 5/6/06, Yahya Abdal-Aziz <yahya@...> wrote:
> > And BritE "Mum", as well as, AFAIK, USE "Mom", also
> > derive from "Ma'am".
>
> I'd be surprised if this were the case. I would imagine this
is simply
> "standard" baby-talk: bilabial consonant + open(ish) vowel.
>
> > But where did "Dad" come from?
>
> Baby talk again, I presume -- probably via "Dada" or similar.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>