A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1586-1603, 1671-1684
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Mum, Mumme, n.1 [e.m.E. mum(me, ME. mom(me (Piers Plowm.), of echoic origin: cf. Germ. mumm.] (Not) the slightest utterance or word. — 1586 Calderwood IV. 532.
For there was never a word or mumme in that assemblie layed to your charge 1603 Philotus xxxix.
If … of ȝour head I heir ane mum, Ȝea sall repent it sair 1671 Brown Suppl. Dict. Decis. II. 704.
There was never so much as one mum heard of this bond all that while 1684 G. Sinclair Truth's Victory over Error (1684) To Reader.
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"Mum n.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/mum_n_1>
