816: nan, nanny, and grand Mar 3, 2017

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There is no shortage for words meaning "mother of a parent" in English, including 'granny', 'grandmother' and 'nana'. The word 'nanny' comes from a nickname common in the early 18th century for the name Ann, which started to be applied to the occupation of a caretaker. Meanwhile, it is not certain whether, 'nan' and 'nana' derive from 'nanny' or the way a young child might pronounce 'gran'. This second option is not terribly unlikely, as babies have a far easier time pronouncing dental sounds like that made by N and also, D, which is why more often 'dad' is an infant's first word rather than 'mom'; you can see more about this below.

It might also be interesting to know that the prefix, 'grand-' as in 'grandmother' derives from the Latin 'grandis' meaning ‘full-grown, big, great’. While now the word is used to mean, 'pleasant', 'big', relative rank, and a gap in generation between family-relations, the usage of the word in Middle English began as a reference to family, and titles first. 'Great' has almost all of the same functions as an adjective and prefix (except as a title) but this instead meant 'large' first.

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