- mummy
- c.1400, "medicine prepared from mummy tissue," from M.L. mumia, from Ar. mumiyah "embalmed body," from Pers. mumiya "asphalt," from mum "wax." Sense of "embalmed body" first recorded in Eng. 1615. Mummy wheat (1842) was said to be cultivated from grains found in mummy-cases.
- mum (n.2)
- 1823, pet word for "mother," short for mummy. In British sociology, used from 1957 in ref. to "the working class mother as an influence in the lives of her children."
- anatomy
- late 14c., "study of the structure of living beings," from O.Fr. anatomie, from Gk. anatomia, from anatome "dissection," from ana- "up" + temnein "to cut" (see tome). "Dissection" (1540s), "mummy" (1580s), and even "skeleton" (1590s) were primary senses of this word in Shakespeare's day; meaning "the science of the structure of organized bodies" predominated from 17c. Often mistakenly divided as an atomy or a natomy.
"The scyence of the Nathomy is nedefull and necessarye to the Cyrurgyen" [1541]
- skeleton
- 1578, from Mod.L. sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Gk. skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy," from neut. of skeletos "dried-up," from skellein "dry up," from PIE base *skele- "to parch, whither" (cf. Gk. skleros "hard"). The Gk. word was borrowed in L.L. (sceletus), hence Fr. squelette, Sp. esqueleto, It. scheletro. The meaning "bare outline" is first recorded 1607; hence skeleton crew (1778), skeleton key, etc. Phrase skeleton in the closet "source of secret shame to a person or family" popularized 1845 by Thackeray, though he likely didn't coin it.
- mamma
- 1579, reduplication of *ma-, nearly universal among the I.E. languages (cf. Gk. mamme "mother, grandmother," L. mamma, Pers. mama, Rus., Lith. mama "mother," Ger. Muhme "mother's sister," Fr. mamen, Welsh mam "mother"). Probably a natural sound in baby-talk, perhaps imitative of sound made while sucking. In educated usage, the stress is always on the last syllable. In terms of recorded usage in Eng., mum is from 1823, mummy 1839, momma 1884, mom 1894, and mommy 1902.