乳母

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: The spelling is 乳母, read うば, and it combines 乳, meaning nursing or milk, with 母, meaning mother.
• Basic usage: 乳母 is a wet nurse or nursemaid entrusted with nursing or raising another household's young child.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• A caregiver rather than the child's biological mother
  • Both examples use the form 乳母. It identifies the caregiver who raised a princess from childhood and later became the object of gratitude, not the child's biological mother.
• A princess's upbringing and gratitude recorded in an old diary
  • 物語の姫は幼い頃から乳母に育てられた。 — The princess in the story was raised by a nursemaid from an early age.
  • 古い日記には乳母への感謝がつづられていた。 — The old diary contained an expression of gratitude to a nursemaid.