late 14c., mummie, "medicinal substance prepared from mummy tissue," from Medieval Latin mumia, which is perhaps from Greek moumia or directly from Arabic mumiyah "embalmed body," from Persian mumiya "asphalt," from mum "wax."

Mummia, A thing like Pitch, some say it is made of mans-flesh boild in Pitch ; Others, that it is taken out of old Tombes, being a corrupted humour that droppeth from embalmed bodies. [Cockeram, English Dictionarie, 1623]

The sense evolution is from the old belief that Egyptian mummies were embalmed with asphalt, which was used medicinally in medieval times. Ancient mummies were harvested for asphalt they were thought to contain, and later merchants mummified executed criminals and other unclaimed bodies to supply the trade. Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, traveling in Egypt circa A.D. 1300, reported buying three mummified heads filled with asphalt for half a dirham. This medicinal mummia or mummie also was used as a paint pigment into early 20c.

The sense of "dead human body embalmed and dried after the manner of the ancient Egyptians" is recorded in English from 1610s. Mummy wheat (1842), grown in Egypt and Ethiopia and once thought to be a distinct species, was said to have been cultivated from grains found in mummy-cases.

1784, a childish alteration of mammy. Alternative form mumsy attested by 1876.

1620s, "embalm and dry (a dead body) as a mummy," from French momifier, from momie "mummy," from Medieval Latin mumia "embalmed body," also a medicinal stuff supposedly prepared from mummy tissue (see mummy (n.1)) + -fier "to make into" (see -fy).

The intransitive sense of "shrivel or dry up" is attested by 1864. Cockeram's "English Dictionarie" (1623) has "Mummianiz'd, Turn'd into Mummie." Related: Mummified; mummifying.

1793, "process of making into a mummy," from mummy + -fication "a making or causing." Meaning "state or fact of being a mummy" is by 1857.

"the dry bones of a body taken together," 1570s, from Modern Latin sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Greek skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy, skeleton," from neuter of skeletos "dried-up" (also, as a noun, "dried body, mummy"), from skellein "dry up, make dry, parch" (from PIE root *skele- "to parch, wither;" see sclero-).

Skelton was an early variant form. The noun use of Greek skeletos passed into Late Latin (sceletus), hence French squelette and rare English skelet (1560s), Spanish esqueleto, Italian scheletro.

The sense of "lean, emaciated person" is by 1620s. The meaning "bare or mere outline, rough draft" is recorded by c. 1600; that of "supporting framework" of anything is by 1650s, hence skeleton key (by 1810). The meaning "of the minimum size for getting work done" is by 1778, originally military; hence skeleton crew (1891), Phrase skeleton in the closet "source of secret shame to a person or family" is from 1812 (the image is perhaps from the Bluebeard fable).

late 14c., "study or knowledge of the structure and function of the human body" (learned by dissection); c. 1400, "anatomical structure," from Old French anatomie and directly from Late Latin anatomia, from late Greek anatomia for classical anatomē "dissection," literally "a cutting up," from ana "up" (see ana-) + temnein "to cut" (from PIE root *tem- "to cut").

"Dissection" (1540s), "mummy" (1580s), and "skeleton" (1590s) were primary senses of this word in Shakespeare's day; the meaning "the science of the structure of organized bodies" predominated from 17c. Of persons, "the body," from 1590s. Often misdivided as an atomy or a natomy (see N).

The scyence of the Nathomy is nedefull and necessarye to the Cyrurgyen [1541]

pet word for "mother," 1823, short for mummy (see mamma). In British sociology, used from 1957 in reference to "the working class mother as an influence in the lives of her children." Also sometimes a vulgar corruption of madam or ma'am.

"mother," a word used especially by children and infants, 1570s, representing the native form of the reduplication of *ma- that is nearly universal among the Indo-European languages (Greek mamme "mother, grandmother," Latin mamma, Persian mama, Russian and Lithuanian mama "mother," German Muhme "mother's sister," French maman, Welsh mam "mother").

Probably a natural sound in baby-talk, perhaps imitative of sound made while sucking. Its late appearance in English is curious, but Middle English had mome (mid-13c.) "an aunt; an old woman," also an affectionate term of address for an older woman.

In educated usage, the stress is always on the last syllable. In terms of the recorded appearance of the variant or related words in English, mama is from 1707, mum is from 1823, mummy in this sense from 1839, mommy 1844, momma 1810, and mom 1867. Mamma's boy "soft, effeminate male" is by 1901.