ayah

[ ah-yuh ]

noun

1. an Indian maid or nurse, especially one employed in a colonial household.

ayah

/ ˈaɪə /

noun

1. (in the East, Africa, and other parts of the former British Empire) a maidservant, nursemaid, or governess, esp one of Indian or Malay origin Compare amah

Word History and Origins

Origin of ayah¹

First recorded in 1775–85; from Hindi āyā, from Portuguese aia “maidservant,” from Latin avia “grandmother,” equivalent to av(us) “grandfather” + -ia feminine suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of ayah¹

C18: from Hindi āyā, from Portuguese aia, from Latin avia grandmother

Example Sentences

The building is known to have housed hundreds of destitute ayahs and amahs - as Indian and Chinese nannies were called respectively.

From BBC

Saraswati Naskar, 40, another ayah who lives in a slum in Kolkata and works in a government hospital, said she had to pretend to her neighbours she now worked in a restaurant.

From The Guardian

“Weren’t we happy there. Take me out,” she tells the ayah, replacing her cup on its saucer.

From The New Yorker

For evening meals, the children usually ate earlier than their parents, with their ayah looking after them.

From The New Yorker

The vocabulary I brought to them had accreted organically, from books I read — “wizening” from D. H. Lawrence; “ayah” from Frances Hodgson Burnett; “crewelwork” from Jane Austen.

From New York Times