| 释义 |
▪ I. mummer, n.|ˈmʌmə(r)|
Also 5 Sc. mumre, 5–6 mummar, 6–7 mommer.
[a. OF. momeur, -eor (early mod.F. mommeur Cotgr.), f. momer (prob. of Teut. origin) = mum v.]
†1. One who mutters or murmurs. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 348/2 Mummar, mussator. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 35 b, A neglecter of my dutye, a secrete mummer of suche thynges whiche touche both the inheritance of your croune and the honor of your realme.
2. † An actor in a dumb show (obs.); one who takes a part in a mumming; spec. (see quot. 1829). Also transf. and fig.
1502Arnolde Chron. (1811) 17 Outake mommers and our [? read other] mynstrels. 1511–12Act 3 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §1 Persones..wyth Vysoures..disgysed or apparelde as Mommers. c1550Bale K. Johan (Camden) 17 And over all this ye have browght in a rabyll Of latyne mummers and sects desseyvabyll. a1566R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1571) C j b, As farre as I see they be Mummers, for nought they say, For the moste parte, what soeuer you aske them. 1648Hunting of Fox 24 Like mommers in a mask, make a fair shew, but speak nothing. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 108 Peel'd, patch'd, and pye-bald, linsey-woolsey brothers Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others. 1829J. Hunter Hallamsh. Gloss. 67 Mummers. This is the name of parties of youths who go about at Christmas fantastically dressed, performing a short dramatic piece of which St. George is the hero. 1873‘Ouida’ Pascarel I. 16 Some sporting of a band of mummers headed by a scarlet Mefistofelo.
b. slang and contemptuously. A ‘play-actor’.
1840Carlyle Heroes vi. (1841) 369, I, for one, will not call the man a Hypocrite! Hypocrite, mummer, the life of him a mere theatricality..? 1861[see mumming vbl. n. 2 c]. 1895J. Hollingshead My Lifetime I. xv. 141 The poor played-out mummer..could not complete his task.
Hence ˈmummerdom, the theatrical world.
1893K. Grahame Pagan Ess. 71 Our poor erring brothers and sisters..of Mummerdom.
▪ II. mummer, v.|ˈmʌmə(r)|
[See mummer 2.]
To take part in a mumming. So ˈmummering vbl. n. = mumming vbl. n. 2.
1884F. Madan in Bodleian Libr. MS. Eng. Poet. c. 17 39 Christmas mummering at Ducklington, Oxon. 1964L. Diack Labrador Nurse ii. xiii. 70 From Christmas Day to Twelfth Night..was the season for ‘Mummering’ or ‘Janny-ing’. There was much dressing up and disguising, and parties went round from house to house to entertain and have fun. 1969L. J. Chiaramonte in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 91 The single male mummer..does not always accept a drink at the houses he mummers in. 1969Widdowson & Halpert in Ibid. 147 Disguise is a central element in Christmas mummering throughout Newfoundland. |