Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Mother.
  • noun The dead body of a human or animal that has been embalmed and prepared for burial, as according to the practices of the ancient Egyptians.
  • noun A withered, shrunken, or well-preserved body that resembles an embalmed body.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of mommy or mum.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mummie, resin obtained from embalmed corpses and used as medicine, from Old French momie, from Medieval Latin mumia, from Arabic mūmiyā’, mūmiyā, a kind of bitumen used to treat wounds and fractures, medicinal resin from mummies.]

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