Tanta
March 18, 2008 8:18 am Fun, German, ZalewskiWell, I was going to write an article asking for some help, but I think I found my answer. When I was a kid, we used to visit my great grandmother (or who I thought was my great grandmother at the time.) As far as I can remember, we always called her “Tanta.” I always thought this was her name, but was told later on that this meant “Grandma” in German. My dad also used to call her this.
It turns out that Tanta was not my actual great grandmother, but my step-great grandmother. My real great grandmother had passed away in the early 1940s and my great grandfather remarried later on. Tanta was Agnes (Pulchinski) Zalewski.I was going to ask if anyone could verify that Tanta meant “Grandma.” I did a Google search a bit ago and found nothing of interest, but right before writing this post I had an idea. I did a search for “Tanta” on the German Google, google.de. The first few entries were for a city called “Tanta,” but then I found a few entries using Tanta to describe a family member. It looks like Tanta is also used for Aunt along with Grandma. I also found entries for the male version, Tante.
Now, is there anyone out there that has better verification than a few people using it on their websites? I’d like to know, since I was using it for most of my childhood. Thanks.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Brian - that sounds more like the word “Aunt” in German (”tante”). Perhaps she was a great-aunt instead.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
She was my step-great grandma, but we called her Tanta at her request. This could have been a name she chose for a niece or nephew at one point.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
In German, “Oma” is grandmother. It can be shortened to Omi (pronounced omee). Blaine is right that “Tante” (pronounced tanta) is aunt in German. It can also be used as slang for an older woman. A godmother is a “Patentante”. Maybe this is an angle to pursue?
March 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Unfortunately, not much of an angle there. She was my great grandfather’s wife. I was just curious as to how she got the nickname.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Brian,
As others have mentioned, “Tante” is German for Aunt. I would guess that the children of your great grandparents may have referred to their stepmother as “Tante” rather than “Mutter”, since she was not their mother by birth.
Tante = aunt
Onkel = uncle
Mutter = mother
Vater = father
Grossvater = grandfather
Grossmutter = grandmother
Urgrossvater = great grandfather
Urgrossmutter = great grandmother
The prefix “ur” in Urgrossvater and Urgrossmutter may originate from the word “uralt” meaning “very old”.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I grew up within a half German house. Tanta always meant aunt.
Oma was grandma. “Omi” when I was quite young…
Opa = Grandpa.. or Opi
Great-grandmother was Tica Oma.
I’ve had German clients for more than 20 years. They got quite a laugh out of me when I was a young man.
In retrospect… (Herman, you gotta meet this guy… Why, .. He switches from Irish Boston guy slang to Cologne German slang midsentence… Does he know that?… No…)