different between mammer vs gammer

English

Etymology

From Middle English mameren (“to hesitate, be undecided, waver, mutter”), from Old English m?mrian, m?morian (“to think through, deliberate, plan out, design”), from Proto-Germanic *maimr?n? (“to take care, worry”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *smer- (“to fall into thought, remember, take care”). Related to Old English m?mor (“deep thought, deep sleep, unconsciousness”), Old English mimorian (“to remember”), Dutch mijmeren (“to ponder, muse”). More at remember.

Verb

mammer (third-person singular simple present mammers, present participle mammering, simple past and past participle mammered)

1. (rare) To hesitate.

   Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul, What you would ask me, that I should deny, Or stand so mammering on — Shakespeare, Othello.

2. (rare) To mumble or stammer from doubt or hesitation.

Derived terms

• mammery
• mammering

Translations

English

Etymology

Reduction of godmother or grandmother.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?æm?/

Noun

gammer (plural gammers)

1. (obsolete) An old woman.
   • 1845, Thomas Cooper, The Purgatory of Suicides, Book the Fourth, Stanza IX:

     If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail

     Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow,

     And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale […]

Coordinate terms

• gaffer

See also

• Gammer Gurton's Needle, a 16th-century English comedy.

Anagrams

• -gramme, gramme