mumming, n.
Forms:
lME mommyng, lME mommynge, lME momyng, lME momynge, lME mummying, lME–15 mummyng, lME–15 mummynge, 15 mumminge, 15–16 moming, 15– mumming, 16 muming, 18– mummin (Eng. regional (Yorks.)); also Sc. pre-17 mummyn. (Show Less)
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: mum v., -ing suffix1.
Etymology: < mum v. + -ing suffix1. Compare Dutch momming.
Now chiefly hist.
1.
a. The action of disguising oneself, esp. for festivities; esp. participation in a mummers' play. Also: a performance of mummers.
1417 in H. T. Riley Memorials London
(1868)
658 (MED)
[There shall be no] mummyng [during this Feast of Our Lord's Nativity].
1418 Guildhall Let.-bk. in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng.
(1931)
96 (MED)
The Mair and Aldermen chargen..þat no manere persone..walk by nyght in eny manere mommyng, pleyes, enterludes, or eny oþer disgisynges.
c1450
(▸c1425)
Brut
(Cambr.)
360
Þe Duk of Surrey, þe Duke of Excestre..& oþir moo of hir afinite, were accorded to make a mummyng vnto þe King..and þere þay cast to sle þe King yn hir revelyng.
a1456
(▸c1428)
Lydgate Minor Poems
(1934)
ii. 672 (MED)
A balade made..for a momyng.
a1500
(▸c1465)
in J. Gairdner Three 15th-cent. Chrons.
(1880)
28 (MED)
A momynge at Wyndsore.
1533 T. More Answere Poysened Bk. i. ii. f. cxvi
Lyke as yf a ryght greate man wolde wantonly walke a mummynge, and dysguyse hymselfe.
1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil Abridgem. Notable Worke v. ii. 100 b
The disguising and muming that is vsed in Christemas tyme..came oute of the feaste of Pallas.
1618 N. Assheton Jrnl.
(1848)
75
At night some companie from Recad came a Mumming.
1648 T. Gage Eng.-Amer. 152
A goodly mumming and silent stage play.
1725 H. Bourne Antiquitates Vulgares xvi. 147
There is another Custom observed at this Time, which is called among us Mumming.
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod iii. vi. 222
A sport common among the ancients..consisted in mummings and disguisements.
1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad I. v. 309
While the children thus went a-mumming..the fathers took to drinking.
1878 T. Hardy Return of Native I. ii. iv. 271
Of mummers and mumming Eustacia had the greatest contempt.
1908 J. Davidson Mammon & his Message i. ii. 11
By fraud, by massacre, by torment, Heaven Obscured our Asgard..While Christ a-mumming came in Baldur's weeds.
1969 H. Halpert in H. Halpert & G. M. Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 54
When mumming (i.e. disguising) was legalized once again in Philadelphia..it reappeared in the guise of formal parades.
1991 S. K. Penman Reckoning
(1992)
xxi. 281
Afterward, there would be dancing and a mumming and a shepherd's play.
1417—1991(Hide quotations)
†b. to make a mumming of : to treat with levity or contempt. Obs. rare.
1523 J. Skelton Goodly Garlande of Laurell 200
Men of suche maters make but a mummynge.
1523—1523(Hide quotations)
†c. depreciatively. Ridiculous or elaborate ceremony (formerly used esp. of religious ritual); play-acting, pretence, meaningless show. Cf. mummery n. 2. Obs.
1528 Tyndale Obed. Christen Man f. lxixv
They thinke that they have done abundauntly ynough for God..yf they be present once in a daye at soch mummynge.
?1547 W. Palmer Poem on Stephen Gardiner in Bull. Inst. Hist. Res.
(1929)
6 168
I promyse you he hade a greater audience to here hym redde a story of the scrypture than we hadde to here our mummynge masse and matyns whereat your canons of Poolis toke displeasure.
1565 T. Stapleton Fortresse of Faith f. 132
They..practise in consecrated places their schismaticall mumming.
1848 C. Kingsley Saint's Trag. iii. i. 149
Give him his answer—'Tis no time for mumming.
1528—1848(Hide quotations)
†d. Acting. Cf. mummer n. 2b. Obs. rare.
1861 H. Mayhew London Labour
(new ed.)
III. 139/2
We call strolling acting ‘mumming’, and the actors ‘mummers’. All spouting is mumming.
1861—1861(Hide quotations)
†2. Inarticulate murmuring; indistinct speech. Obs.
▸1440 Promptorium Parvulorum
(Harl. 221)
348
Mummynge, mussacio, vel mussatus.
1573 T. Twyne tr. Virgil in T. Phaer & T. Twyne tr. Virgil Whole .xii. Bks. Æneidos xi. sig. Hh ij b
Scarse had the legates done, when mumblynge mumminge [L. varius fremor] much doth rise.
1440—1573(Hide quotations)
Compounds
General attrib.
1579 G. Gilpin tr. P. van Marnix van Sant Aldegonde Bee Hiue of Romishe Church xix. f. 211v
Hee doeth there set you forth maruelous trimlie, all the reasons, why the Priest doeth so trimme him selfe in such mumming garments, when he goeth about to play his parte.
1707 N. Tate Injur'd Love 43
Methings a foppish mumming Dress and Vizard, As Ill becomes a Soldier as a Priest.
1828 Scott Fair Maid of Perth xi, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 298
How I am to convey her out of this crowd..in such a mumming habit.
1878 T. Hardy Return of Native I. ii. iv. 279
I can get boy's clothes—at least all that would be wanted besides the mumming dress.
1931 A. Uttley Country Child xi. 139
When my father was young and his father before him, they did a play, a mumming play, with no words.
1963 A. Brown & P. Foote Early Eng. & Norse Stud. 78
Possibly he was writing a mumming poem on the subject.
1985 ELH 52 539
At Christmas the mumming captains and Lords of Misrule held similar powers within their revels.
1579—1985(Hide quotations)