'Mum's the word' has nothing to do with mothers

26 February 2017 - 02:00 By Sue de Groot
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Sue de Groot
Sue de Groot
Image: Supplied

In Mel Brooks's 1976 satire 'Silent Movie', there is only one audible word on the soundtrack: "Non!" This is spoken out loud by the famous French mime Marcel Marceau.

Some people are terrified of mimes. I did not understand this until the time I woke before dawn and began thinking of mimes. The darkest hours, with rain thrumming on the roof and cats prowling on the duvet in anticipation of first breakfast, are not the best time to imagine a mime, surprised eyebrows painted high on its chalky face, white gloves glimmering in the moonlight, tiptoeing silently down the passage. Don't do this. It's scary.

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On Barcelona's Las Ramblas avenue, as in many other cities, are mimes painted to look like statues. They stand frozen on pedestals, usually surrounded by a small crowd of admirers waiting for the moment when the mimes subtly change position. If you're not watching properly, this can be as frightening as that part in Stephen King's The Shining when the topiaries creep silently closer but stop moving as soon as someone looks at them.

One of the mimes in Barcelona was painted gold and stood so still for such a long time that a portly tourist, thinking the statue was real, leant on it to give his sore feet a rest. The mime toppled from its pedestal with a most unmimelike Spanish curse, the tourist fell on top of it, and quite a lot of laughter ensued.

The tourist did not laugh, although he might have cheered up later when his companion's video went viral on YouTube. At the time he did not realise he was sitting on a gold mime.

Mimes and mimicry (as well as mimesis, pantomimes and mimeographs) have their etymological roots in the Greek mimeisthai, meaning "to imitate". In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined the mime as "a buffoon who practises gesticu-lations, either representative of some action, or merely contrived to raise mirth".

Last week reader Nakedi Libaga asked about the origin of the expression "keep mum", meaning "shut up" or "don't tell a soul". "Mum's the word" - often said with a wink and a zipping motion across the lips when urging someone to hold their tongue - is a close cousin of "keep mum" but neither phrase has anything to do with mothers, who might be entrusted with secrets, nor with Egyptian mummies, who have a hard time saying anything at all.

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"Mum" in this sense, means the same as "hum". The Phrase Finder tells us that "mumming" dates back to medieval times, when villagers were entertained by troupes of performers in fancy dress who would act out silly plays without words, instead making a "mmmmm" sound through closed lips. Pretty much like what modern-day mimes do, only scarier.

The Phrase Finder essay includes this comment: "Sadly, no complete texts of the medieval mummers' plays have been preserved."

This may be sad but is hardly surprising. Had a script existed it would have looked something like this:

PLAYER 1: Mmmm

PLAYER 2: Mmmmmmmm

CHORUS: Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm

From this mumsense came the 16th-century phrase "mum is counsel" (as in "best say nothing") . In Henry VI, Part 2, written in 1591, Shakespeare had the double-dealing Sir John Hume mutter to himself: "Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."

About a century or so later this advice morphed into "mum's the word", which we still use today.

My mum is not much given to humming, but she recently had an operation on her ear and for a few days her head was wrapped in mummy-like bandages. This scared her dog a little, but not half as much as an unexpected mime would have. 

E-mail your observations on words and language to Sue de Groot on degroots@sundaytimes.co.za or follow her on Twitter: @deGrootS1

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