mum1
/mʌm
/- Well the most wonderful thing happened last night, but I have to be mum on the subject, so I can't say a word.
- However, his doctors are still remaining mum on his condition until the complete tests take place later this week.
Phrases
keep mum
mum's the word
Origin
Late Middle English: imitative of a sound made with closed lips.
Like ma (early 19th century) and mama (mid 16th century), mum (late 16th century) and mummy (mid 18th century) go back eventually to the first semi-articulate sounds made by children, which tend to be ‘ma, ma’. Mother itself probably has the same origin. The expressions mum's the word and to keep mum are perhaps most associated with life during the Second World War, conjuring up warnings about careless talk costing lives—for example, ‘Be like dad. Keep mum.’ Both phrases are much older, being recorded as far back as the early 16th century. The word mum itself was used on its own in medieval times to mean ‘hush!’ or ‘shh!’, and probably originated as a representation of the sound you make when you close your lips firmly together and try to speak. It also gave us mumble (Middle English). Ancient Egyptian mummies are named after the substance in which the dead person's body was embalmed. Mummy in this sense goes back to Arabic mūmiyā ‘bitumen’ for ‘the body of an embalmed person or animal’ mummy is recorded in English from the early 17th century.
Rhymes
mum2
/mʌm/- He was the first to draw scholarly attention to the custom of Christmas mumming in Newfoundland and its accompanying traditional drama, as evidenced in the standard work on the subject, Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland.
- It's an old tradition, which, along with wassailing and mumming, we have performed over the years in and around Skipton, and many people, especially those young in heart, enjoy the music and dance in which all are invited to participate.
- The common and consistent point is that they took a selection of historic performance practices - morris dances and sword dances, mumming, and others in England - and declared them to be the survivals of ancient sacrificial rituals.
Origin
Late Middle English: compare with mum1 and Middle Low German mummen.
mum3
/mʌm/- Saint Mary's Church was decorated with pink and white mums.
- Autumn's butterflies - fritillaries and migrating monarchs - match the burnt-orange mums just beginning to bloom.
Origin
Late 19th century: abbreviation.
mum4
/mʌm/- Her comparison of older mothers to teenage mums and her call for government intervention is likely to prove highly controversial.
- Here we speak to a first-time mum, a mother of four and that other essential to baby-making, a father, about their experiences of life after childbirth.
- Like his mum - and her mother before her - Tom suffers from aura migraines.
Origin
Mid 17th century: abbreviation of mummy2.