[Meaning] mammy. The mother of [someone's] father or mother.[1]
The vocative [is] th/qa.
But thqi\s [is] aunt.[2]
Aristophanes [writes]: "o the manliest of grandmothers [thqw=n], and of fruitful nettles [mhtridi/wn a)kalh/fwn]. Give way to your anger, do not soften: for still now you run before the winds!"[3] They used to call grandmothers th/qas. [They] also [used to call] aunts thqi/das, the sisters of one's father or mother. [They] also [called] nurses th/qas. [*th/qea] are also sea oysters. Homer [writes]: "he would satisfy many men seeking oysters [th/qea]."[4] And some call the sea [oysters] sea nettles [a)kalh/fas]. Attic-speaking people call thistles nettles [a)kalh/fas]. Also, when a thistle is soft, when it holds wombs, that is to say when [it holds] balls of seeds, it is called a nettle [a)kalh/fh]. So [Aristophanes] called old women nettles [a)kalh/fas], since they are hard and well-lived. For, also, the little plant bites. So since he said 'grandmothers' [thqw=n], he spoke of fruitful things [mhtridi/wn]; that is, ones having the seeds of the nettle [a)kalh/fhs] plant; and these bite too; and old women [are] like that. And he called the ones having seeds fruitful ones [mhtridi/as].