Noun: ama
Sample Sentences
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Not only does the baby have a jewel then, or some handsome gift, but his ama (nurse) is remembered with a bright gold doubloon (sixteen dollars). [1910, Mary F. Roulet, The Spaniard at Home, page 14:]
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Again as with Juan, shortly after the religious rite the children would be transferred to the care of wet nurses, or amas, who would take them into their individual homes. [2007, Ondina E. González, Bianca Premo, Raising an Empire, page 143:]
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It was rumoured that she had been his ama, the wet nurse who then became part of the family, taking charge so effectively that she ruled the household. [2013, Maria Aurora Couto, Filomena's Journey:]
Nouns inflected like ama
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Portuguese ama (“female nurse”), from Medieval Latin amma (“wet nurse, amma”), perhaps an alteration of mamma, of imitative origin, or from Ancient Greek. See: Portuguese Nouns '
ama'.