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Amah
An amah or ayah (simplified Chinese: 阿嬷; traditional Chinese: 阿嬤; pinyin: ā mā, Portuguese: ama, German: Amme, Medieval Latin: amma; or ayah, Portuguese: aia, Latin: avia, Tagalog: yaya) is a girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after children, and perform other domestic tasks. Amah is the usual version in East Asia, while ayah relates more to South Asia, and tends to specifically mean a nursemaid looking after young children, rather than a general maid.
amah
The word amah may have originated from the Arabic: أَمَةٌ, romanized: ʾamah meaning "female slave" or from the Portuguese ama meaning "nurse".[6] Some however argued that it is the English form of the Chinese word ah mah. Ah (阿; ā) is a common Chinese prefix used before monosyllabic names or kinship terms to indicate familiarity, and mah (妈; 媽; mā) means "mother". Others say that the word originated from the term for a wet nurse, nai mah (奶妈; 奶媽; nǎimā; 'milk mother').[7] This word is common in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia to denote a maidservant or nursemaid.[8] 041b061a72