Baby mama

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This article is about the slang term. For the Fantasia song, see Baby Mama (song).

Baby mama (also baby-mama and baby-mother) is an African-American Vernacular English term used to describe a mother who is not married to her child's father. The term is included in the Oxford English Dictionary as baby-mama, where it is defined as, "the mother of a man's child, who is not his wife or (in most cases) his current or exclusive partner".^[1]

The term originated in Jamaican Creole as baby-mother (pronounced "biebi madda"), with the first printed usage appearing in the Kingston newspaper the the Daily Gleaner in 1966.^[1][2] Another Daily Gleaner use dates from November 21, 1989.^[2] Peter L. Patrick, a linguistics professor who studies Jamaican English, has said of the terms baby-mother and baby-father, "[they] definitely imply there is not a marriage—not even a common-law marriage, but rather that the child is an 'outside' child".^[1]

Baby-mother and baby-mama had entered wide use in American hip-hop lyrics by the mid-1990s.^[1] The Outkast song "Ms. Jackson", released in 2000, was dedicated to "all the baby mamas' mamas". American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino released a song entitled "Baby Mama" in 2004.

Originally, the term was used by the fathers of children born out of wedlock to describe the mothers of their children, but the term is now in general use to describe any single mother. However, since entering currency in U.S. tabloids, the terms baby-mama and baby-daddy have even begun to be applied to married and engaged celebrities.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Turner, Julia. (May 7, 2006). "A Brief History of Baby-Daddies." Slate Magazine. Retrieved December 12, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} Patrick, Peter L. (1995). Some Recent Jamaican Creole Words. American Speech, 70(3), 227-264. Retrieved December 12, 2006.