great-great-grandmother

The term 'great-great-grandmother' is a modern English compound built on the genealogical naming pattern established in the 15th century. The core element 'mother' descends from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root méh₂tēr, a fundamental kinship term. The modifier 'grand' was adopted from French, itself from Latin 'grandis', to signify a generational step beyond the immediate parent. The reduplication of 'great' is a logical, multiplicative extension of this principle, where each 'great' denotes an additional ancestral generation, creating a precise and transparent descriptor for a specific familial relationship two generations prior to a great-grandparent.

This is a compound word formed by the repetition and combination of the adjective 'great' and the noun 'grandmother'. 'Great' originates from Old English 'grēat', meaning "big, coarse, thick". 'Grandmother' is a compound of 'grand' (from Latin 'grandis', meaning "full-grown, great") and 'mother' (from Old English 'mōdor', from Proto-Indo-European méh₂tēr).