Amah (occupation)

An amah or ayah (simplified Chinese: 阿嬷; traditional Chinese: 阿嬤; pinyin: ā mā, Portuguese: ama, German: Amme, Medieval Latin: amma; or ayah Hindi: āyā or amma, Portuguese: aia, Latin: avia, Tagalog: yaya) is a girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after children, and perform other domestic tasks.

Role

It is a domestic servant role which combines functions of maid and nanny. The term, resembling the pronunciation for "mother", is considered polite and respectful in the Chinese language when it is used to refer to a maid. They may often be required by employers to wear a uniform.

Etymology

The word amah may have originated from the Portuguese ama meaning "nurse". Some however argued that it is the anglicized form of the Chinese word ah mah (ah is a common Chinese prefix, and mah means "little mother"), while others say that it originated as nai mah (wet nurse in Chinese, literally "milk mother"). This word is common in East Asia, South East Asia and India to denote a maidservant or nursemaid. In India, ayah is the more common variant, and this Anglo-Indian word originated from the Portuguese aia meaning "nurse", feminine form of aio meaning "tutor".

Occupation

Occupation may refer to:

Occupation (TV serial)

Occupation is a BAFTA Award–winning three part drama serial broadcast by BBC One in June 2009. It was written by Peter Bowker and has been produced by Kudos for BBC Northern Ireland.

It took four years to bring the serial to screen. Filming took place in Morocco and Northern Ireland.

The serial follows the fortunes of three British Army soldiers from the 2003 invasion of Basra to 2007. Each is inspired to return to Basra for different reasons: one returns for love, one for monetary gain, and one for his belief in the mission to rebuild the country.

Episodes

Episode 1

Occupation (protest)

As an act of protest, occupation is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. As such, occupations often combine some of the following elements: a challenge to ownership of the space involved, an effort to gain public attention, the practical use of the facilities occupied, and a redefinition of the occupied space. Occupations may be conducted with varying degrees of physical force to obtain and defend the place occupied. Occupations may be brief or they may extend for weeks, months or years. In some cases of long-term occupation, the term protest camp may be applied, although occupation often connotes the use of space without permission or in defiance of governmental authority.

Occupation, as a means of achieving change, emerged from worker struggles that sought everything from higher wages to the abolition of capitalism. Often called a sit-down strike, it is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized location, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with strikebreakers or, in some cases, moving production to other locations.