Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black) a woman, esp. when sexy and attractive.

1917		song title in AS VII:4 (1932) 243: I’m a Real Kind Mamma, Lookin’ for a Lovin’ Man.
1925		G.S. Schuyler Yellow Peril in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 52: You’re not the only nigger in Harlem that wants a good looking mama!
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Aug. [synd. col.] Some mamma, and can she neck!
1930–1		J.T. Farrell ‘Spring Evening’ in Fellow Countrymen (1937) 169: There actually wasn’t a decent-lookin’ mama up there all summer.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 379: That mamma wouldn’t two-time anything in pants. She’s a tramp.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 90: And where those mamas finished / Is where she’s begun .
1947		Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson ‘Kidney Stew Blues’ 🎵 Crazy about you baby, but I just ain’t got the price / You’re a high class mama, so I guess it ain’t no dice.
1965		W. King ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 304: Hey, mamma, you putty thang ... shorr look foine.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 135: Them big black mamas got muscles in their twats.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 96: Sonny said he would be happy to take over whenever they wanted a black guy to give it to the white mamas.
1999		Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 6: A pair of middle-aged red-hot mamas.

2. (orig. US black) a girlfriend or wife, esp. in direct address.

1924		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 56: Ya gotta see mama every night or you can’t see mama at all.
1926		M. West Sex (1997) I i: Oh, mamma, you don’t know what you’re missing.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 76: That crechur is mah ma-ma now.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 25: Nobody’s stealin’ me from you, mamma—an’ nobody’s shootin’ me out o’ your arms.
1953		Big Joe Turner ‘TV Mama’ 🎵 Yeah, she’s my TV Mama, one with the big, wide screen.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 22: At the end of the block a woman crossed the mouth of the alley. ‘Goodbye, Mama,’ Henry Jackson said.
1979		H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 142: I’ll get you some dust, mama.
1983		R. Price Breaks 339: He kept calling the middle-aged black waitress ‘Mama.’ As in ‘how you be, Mama’.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 69: Tell it like it is, Mama.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 7: Demands to make illicit calls [...] to ‘my man on the outs’, to mommas and babymommas.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Mama - girlfriend.

3. a feminine lesbian.

1898		‘Jacobus X’ [trans.] Untrodden Fields (2 edn) II 303: [A]ctive and passive rôles [in ‘tribadic couples’] are always distinct. The first, or the more active, belongs to that which they call the papa or uncle, to whom, as in marriage, great freedom is permitted in her conection with men [...] The passive rôle is called mamma and woe betide her if she is unfaithful [Simes:DLSS].
1922		S. Kahn Mentality & Homosexuality 123: ‘Mamas’: These are female homosxuals who still appear and maintain feminine attitudes and characteristics, who have homosexual relations with other females, but these ‘mama[s]’ take the passive part [Simes:DLSS].
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1954		A.M. Krich Homosexuals 28: Papas are female homosexuals who take the man’s part. Mamas take the woman’s part [Simes:DLSS].
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 29: mama (n.): The feminine type of lesbian usually living with a papa or daddy (q.v.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 137: molly dyke [...] the passive lesbian. Syn. mama.

4. anything considered very powerful, large or admirable.

1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 245: Why don’t you [...] roll me up a nice big fat mama cigarette?
1974		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: mama – anything unusually large or difficult: The exam Monday is going to be a real mama.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 244: (of a machine gun] I’m keeping mama wide open all night long.

5. attrib. use of sense 4.

1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 245: Why don’t you [...] roll me up a nice big fat mama cigarette?
1985		G. Tate ‘Atomic Dog’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 30: Then Clinton struck the mama load with 1975’s Mothership Connection. That was the turning point, all right.

6. (US) an effeminate male homosexual; also as camp self-description.

1953		T. Runyon In For Life 99: I’ve seen Papa do without smoking tobacco to buy Mama a wrist-watch.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 131: mama 1. person who assumes the wifely position in a gay marriage. 2. (pron) oneself; the first person singular though used in the third person.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 185: I [...] ’jaculate my jack / Into some seafood mama.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 140: Mamma needs a new pair of shoes.

7. (orig. Hell’s Angel) a woman who rides with an outlaw motorbike gang and is available for sex and allied indignities but is distinguished from the old ladies (the actual girlfriends of the riders); the term is an abbr. of Let’s go make someone a mama.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 177: There are mamas at any Angel gathering [...] they are available at any time, in any way, to any Angel, friend or favoured guest – individually or otherwise. They also understand that the minute they don’t like the arrangement they can leave.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 144: Valerie pleaded with him to shut up. ‘That’s good advice, mama,’ the fat biker said.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 150: A sullen gang of bikies [...] and their mammas.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 293: Apprentice sweet mamas, barely past puberty.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] I’d seen those sixties bikie films [...] I didn’t want to be anyone’s momma.

8. (US prison) an inmate who poses as a woman.

1971–2

C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 209: mama, n. – name given to a female impersonator.

9. a masculine lesbian.

1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 147: From them she might pick up and more to startle than identify with her sisters use words and expressions such as [...] mama (oldfashioned term for daddy).
1992		B. Gifford Night People 4: Them big ol’ mamas been usin’ me for toilet paper.