Green’s Dictionary of Slang

grandmother; thus a term of address to an old woman.

1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) IV i: An’ I were as yonk as e’er I were that Scottish knavery I would quit, and you too, grannum.
1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe V i: Her hopes if her Grannam dye without issue, better.
1610		Beaumont & Fletcher Scornful Lady IV i: Old men i’ the house, of fifty, call me grannam.
1621		Jonson Gypsies Metamorphosed 35: cock: What was there i’ thy purse thou keepst such a whimperinge was the lease of thy house in it? pup: Or thy Grannam’s silver Ring?
1632		Massinger Emperour of the East IV i: By my granams ghost ’Tis a holsome zaying.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty IV iii: Alas! poor granam, dost thou grieve because thou wantest money to go drink with thy gossips!
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 82: A youth e’en spoil’d for want of Whipping, / For’s Father, and his foolish Grannam / Have ever made a Wanton on him.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 217: Great Grannam to many Gods.
1685–88		‘Fairing for Young Men and Maids’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 111: My Granum will give me a cradle, which is both firm and strong.
1698		N. Ward London Spy II 31: By that time we had sip’d off our Nipperkin of my Grannum’s Aqua Mirabilis.
c.1700		‘Panegyrick upon Cundums’ n.p.: He in pangs / Unfelt before, curses the dire result / Of lawless revelling; from morn to eve / By never-ceasing keen emetics urg’d; / Nor slights he now his grannam’s sage advice.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:3 20: Said I, I’d rather that the Murrain / Should turn my Grannum’s Cows to Carion.
1709		M. Pix Adventures in Madrid III i: Marry gap forsooth Grannum, your Anger I know.
1709		Cibber Rival Fools Prologue: Each Weapon of his Wit so lamely fought, / That ’twou’d as scanty on our Stage be thought, / As for a modern Belle my Grannum’s Petticoat.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 48: Then home to her Grannum reel’d Nell.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 85: O, the hideous Creature! Did you observe her Nails. They were long enough to scratch her Granum out of her Grave.
1741		W. Kennett ‘Armour’ Potent Ally 4: Nor slights he now his Grannum’s Sage Advice.
1750		Love at First Sight 80: Granums who dy’d an hundred Years ago.
1761		Bath Chron. 23 July 3/4: If from the Sky a Star is shot, / My Grannum cries a Child is got.
1768		Stamford Mercury 4 Feb. 1/1: In olden times, your grannams unrefin’d, / Ty’d up the tongue, put padlocks on the mind.
1785		M. Lonsdale Spanish Rivals II ii: My good old Grannum often said [...] That Men were for the Women made.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 277: A simple country put / To see his grannum walks on foot.
c.1800		‘The Jolly Butcher’ No. 26 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: You’ve got a wealthy grannum.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		Hereford Times 28 Jan. 2/3: The shadow of our grannum [...] in wild terror while she screamed.
1840		Morn. Chron. (London) 8 Jan. 4/4: That’s a good Grannum.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 336: Grannum, Henpecker, Empusa — / Aside, Faith ! I must give over now.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 203: My Grannum (who had a ready Memory for those Tales).
1880		Cornishman 3 June 8/4: As grey as grannum’s cat.
1938		Chelmsford Chron. 16 Dec. 6/4: The [...] reverend observations of my Grannum.