မိန်းမ

Burmese

Alternative spelling
  • မိမ္မ (mimma.) (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Burmese မိယ်မ (miy ma).[1] The first element is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-mi(j)-n (“people, man, human being”), which is cognate with Chinese 民 (mín, “people, men”).

An outdated folk etymology claimed that the word was derived from မီးမာ (mi:ma, “burned scar”). Traditional Burmese-Buddhist origin myth says that proto-women got burned scars after they fell from celestial grace.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /méɪɴma̰/
  • Romanization: MLCTS: min:ma. • ALA-LC: minʻʺma • BGN/PCGN: mein:ma. • Okell: meìñmá

Noun

မိန်းမ • (min:ma.) (classifier ယောက် or ဦး)

  1. woman

Coordinate terms

References
  1. Rudolf A. Yanson (2002 January 1) A List of Old Burmese Words from 12th Century Inscriptions‎, Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 163–167
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