mumchance

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English mommen (mutter, be silent) and Middle High German mummenschantze (game of chance as part of a masquerade, mime performance, revel), from Old French momen (mask) and chance (game of chance).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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mumchance (comparative more mumchance, superlative most mumchance)

  1. Mute, or not speaking; silent.
    • 1821, “M.” [pseudonym], “The Traveller”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume II (Original Papers), number XII, London: Henry Colburn and Co. [], →OCLC, page 544:
      There is something exceedingly unpleasant in being obliged to answer "No," to a traveller's "Pray, Sir, were you ever abroad?" and to sit mum-chance all the time that he is running over the "grimoire" of outlandish technicalities. For my own part, I am convinced that man is, par excellence, a travelling animal; [...]
    • 1966, Paul Scott, The Jewel in the Crown, page 69:
      I wrote Miss Crane off as mediocre because although she chatted quite pleasantly and intelligently over coffee she was mostly mumpchance at the dinner table. Oh, not mumpchance tout court.
    • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 446:
      The two little children stood mumchance, but with a kindly air.
    • 2001, Paula Marshall, Lord Hadleigh's Rebellion, Harlequin (Mills & Boon), 2008, page 124,
      If he did, he would remain mumchance about that, too.
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Noun

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mumchance (countable and uncountable, plural mumchances)

  1. An old game of chance played with cards in silence.
  2. A silent, stupid person.
    • 1830, Mary Leman Grimstone, Louisa Egerton:
      I'm not such a mumchance, to be sure, but I've as good a fortune

References

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