Published on 12, July, 2020
I am feeling low and so I thought I would try to improve my mood by looking into the history of mum and mummy (as in one's mother). I find it fascinating looking into words in this way, particularly such everyday words.
If, like me, you thought that mum was a contraction of mummy then ... you are wrong! That came as surprise and shows that such things can be counter-intuitive.
Surprisingly, mum is the older word by nearly two centuries. The OED's first recorded use of mum is from 1595 (albeit the date is uncertain) whilst mummy dates back to 1768.
The OED's etymology states that mum is probably a variant of mam. The etymology of mummy is similarly uncertain and is considered to be either a variant of mammy or, perhaps, mum plus the -y suffix (which is used to form pet names).
The noun daddy has gone through a number of forms since 1523 (which the OED supports using a quotation with the form dady) whereas the noun mummy has only had two forms (mummy and mummie) but is a much later word.
The noun mammy which, according to the OED, also dates back to 1523 has had even more forms than daddy.
Nowadays we think of the nouns mummy and daddy belonging together but from a historical point of view the nouns mammy and daddy go together.
The spelling 'daddie' is used by Robert Burns in his 1785 poem 'A Poet's Welcome To His Love-Begotten Daughter ...'
Thou's welcome, wean! Mischanter fa' me,
If thoughts o' thee or yet thy mammie
Shall ever daunton me or awe me, My sweet, wee lady.
Or if I blush when thou shalt ca' me Tyta or daddie!
The 'mum' of 'mum's the word' is 'mmm' - the humming sound made with a closed mouth, indicating an unwillingness or inability to speak. The word is of long standing in the language and first appeared in print in William Langland's Middle English narrative poem Piers Plowman, circa 1376:
Thou mightest beter meten the myst on Malverne hullesThen geten a mom of heore.
That loosely translates as 'You may as well try to measure the mist on the Malvern Hills as to try and get her to speak without first offering payment'.
Mum's the word is as old as Piers Plowman, and as central to English folklore, is the tradition of mumming. Sadly, no complete texts of the medieval mummers' plays have been preserved. There was never a definitive version in any case, as the acting, dancing, drinking and alms collecting that made up mumming varied from one parish to another. We can't be sure what medieval mumming plays were like, but a raucous mixture of pantomime, morris dancing and carol singing, played out by a group of bizarre characters in stylised fancy dress, is what has come down to us by oral tradition.
What we do know is that 'mumming', or 'miming' as it was sometimes called, derives from the word 'mum'. Early versions of mumming involved a parade of characters entering houses to dance or play games in silence, that is, 'miming'. More recently, the tradition has evolved to almost always include the character of a quack doctor, who revives the hero (usually Saint George) after his death in a fight with the Turkish Knight (boo, hiss).
Although they mummed for all they were worth, the players didn't use the phrase 'mum's the word'; that usage came later, in the 17th century. The earliest version of the phrase was 'mum is counsel', that is, 'you are advised to say nothing'. That form of the phrase was used in John Palsgrave's 1540 translation of the Latin text The Comedye of Acolastus:
I dare not to do so moche as put my hande to my mouthe, and saye mum, is counseyle.
Of course, we can't examine a Tudor phrase without Shakespeare getting in on the act, and he used 'mum' in Henry VI, Part 2, 1592:
"Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."
'Mum's the word' later became the standard way of advising a person to keep quiet and the first citation of it in print that I have found is in A Walk Around London and Westminster - The Works of Mr. Thomas Brown, 1720:
I can identify with the act of “mumming”... I often find myself surrounded by a parade of characters...
to side it’s eptomology with the act of mime is also interesting as the concept of a muted figure/subordinated... performance art!
Thank you.
Well, the OED's first recorded use of dad is 1533 compared to 1523 for daddy. The former's etymology is 'probably < the (reduplicated) syllable /da/ which is characteristic of early infantile vocalization, with loss of the final vowel', although there are notes that 'it has been suggested that the word [dad] was borrowed from Welsh tad' and 'slightly earlier currency [of dad] is probably implied by daddy'.
The etymology of daddy is considered to be similar to mummy, i.e. dad plus the -y suffix (although dad is first attested slightly later daddy).
Hi carerwo sorry you are feeling low right now!
It happens to most of us, that is a given unfortunately.
I find focusing on something in a similar way to you have is a good way of lifting the spirits.
I oftenvstart a long rambling thread, I do try to give information with it as if I feel I might have helped just one person it makes me feel better in myself.
All good then, I potentially help or give relief to someone in exchange for being shown kindness back.
take care, ,,,,,what about “daddy”? Lol. Well I am one.
x( ) x