Lost Word Of The Day (75)

It is more than a truism that a child is indulged more by their grandparents than their parents. It is also more than a truism that often the burden of childcare, at least during daytime and school holidays, falls on grandparents.

A word that rather neatly wraps up the two concepts into one is mammothrept, now sadly fallen into obscurity. It means a spoiled child and was used by Ben Jonson in Cynthia’s Revels published in 1616; “O, you are a mere mammothrept in judgement then”. It was derived from the Greek mammothreptos which meant a child brought up by their grandmother.

If we do have to suffer spoiled brats, at least there is a great word to describe them.