Does the verb "amare" come from the babble word for "mother"?

Question

Wiktionary gives us the following etymology of amare.

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *am-a-, *am- (“mother, aunt”), a lost nursery-word of the papa-type. Compare amita (“aunt”), Old High German amma (“nurse”). Alternatively, O. Hackstein suggests Proto-Indo-European *h₂emh₃- (“seize”).

There's a fascinating conjecture in this etymology that amare comes from a nursery word meaning "mother" or "aunt", which I take to be a babble word such as "ma-ma". But unfortunately, I do not find this theory in de Vaan's entry.

amo, -are 'to love' [v. I] (Naev.+) Derivatives: amascere 'to begin to love' (Naev.), amasius 'lover' (PL+); amicus friend' (Naev.+), 'friendly' [o/a] (PL+), arnica 'female friend' (Naev.+), inimlcus [adj. / m.] 'unfriendly; an enemy (P1.+), inimicitia 'enmity, ill will' (P1.+); amor 'sexual passion, love' (Naev.+).
Pit. *ama- 'to take, hold\ It. cognates: Marr. amatens 'they have received'.
PIE *h3mh3- to take hold of. IE cognates: Olr. namae 'enemy' (< *n-AjmAj-^«/-); Skt pr. amfsi, amanti 'to take hold of; swear', ama- [m.], OAv. §ma-9 YAv. ama- [m.] 'attacking power'; Gr. όμνυμι 'to swear' [aor. όμόσαι, fut. όμοΰμαι] , άνώμοτος 'not under oath'.
The Latin meaning has developed from 'to take the hand of > 'regard as a friend'. Pit. *ama- could reflect PIE *h3mh3- in front of a vowel, cf. Schrijver 1991: 318. Schrijver 1991: 398ff. argues that the stative meaning of amare and the presence of a derivative amor point to a stative verb *ama-e-. Its formation must then post-date Pit., since Marr. amatens is not likely to have a stative suffix *-e-3 and has the transitive meaning * receive' of the IE cognates. The form amasius, because of its s, seems to be dialectal; maybe it is the same suffix as CLat. -arius. The adjectival function of amicus is original; the suffix -icus might be decasuative from an ins. in *-/A; plus *-Ao- (parallel cases in Latin are pudicus 'chaste' and mendicus 'needy'). The PIE root is reconstructed with initial *h2- in LIV, but Gr. points to *h3-,
Bibl.: WH 1:40, EM 29, IEW 778, Rix 1999: 523-24, LIV *h2emh3-. -> amplus

De Vaan gives the PIE root *h₃mh₃- ("to take hold of") for its etymology. This could be consistent with a babble word, but there is no explicit mention.

Is there any plausibility behind the idea that amare comes from a nursery word meaning "mother"? If so, how probable is this conjecture? Is there a consensus?

Answer 1

Regarding the infinitive specifically, as opposed to conjugated forms of amare "to love", which is a generally accurate definition of mother in relation to her infant:

The “R” sound is hard for some children because it is difficult to see the tongue when you say it and it is hard to explain to a child how to make it... Many children can say a correct “R” sound by the time they are five and a half years old, but some do not produce it until they are seven years old.
_{SOURCE: Why is “R” So Hard to Say? K.F. Bedsole, M.S., CCC-SLP and C.M. Johnson, M.A., CCC-SLP}

"t" sounds would also be quite difficult, but the "o" sound is more accessible because the infant can see the shape of the mouth.

• "ama" is quite common as baby babble, in many ways "ma" is the easiest word because it only requires opening the mouth in a fully relaxed state. As one of the first utterances humans will make, I think it's a reasonable assumption that amare might partly derive from "ma" or "ama".

What I mean by reasonable assumption is that adults, in my experience, generally try to interpret baby babble. In this case, the adult might assume the infant is trying to say "you love" (amas), which, again, is a generally accurate description of a mother in regards to her infant.