noun (in India and the Far East)
- a baby’s nurse, especially a wet nurse.
- a female servant; maid.
noun
- (in the East, esp formerly) a nurse or maidservant, esp one of Chinese originCompare ayah
“wet-nurse,” 1839, Anglo-Indian, from Portuguese ama “nurse,” from Medieval Latin amma “mother,” from PIE root *am-, forming nursery words.