mummer
UK/ˈmʌm.ə(ɹ)//ˈmʌm.ɚ/
mummer noun: a person who dons a disguising costume, as for a parade or a festival.
Noun
mummer (plural mummers)
- A person who dons a disguising costume, as for a parade or a festival.
- An actor in a pantomime; one who communicates entirely through gesture and facial expression.
- [To] perform as mummers, who act in relays of eight, at the worship of ancestors.1883, Adele Marion Fielde, “舞 (bú)”, in A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, page 16
- Synonyms:
- mime
Verb
mummer (third-person singular simple present mummers, present participle mummering, simple past and past participle mummered)
- Synonym of mum (“to act in pantomime or dumb show”).
- There is a general agreement that niggering [blackface performance] took over from mummering to keep up the old custom.1976, Cake and Cockhorse, volume 7, page 220
- We mummered taverns and restaurants and the airport (the dead man went round and round on the luggage carousel). We mummered Portuguese fishing trawlers in the harbour, where the show worked despite the language barrier, […]1988, Chris Brookes, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Institute of Social and Economic Research, A Public Nuisance: A History of the Mummers Troupe (page 53)
- Synonyms:
- mum
mummer meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
mummer in Tamil
- ஊமைக்காட்சி நடிகர்
mummer in Urdu
- mummer
- ادا کار adā kār
mummer in Bengali
- মুখোশধারী অভিনেতা, মূকাভিনেতা
Synonyms of mummer
Forms of mummer
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mummers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mummers |
| present participle | mummering |
| past participle | mummered |
| past | mummered |
Origin of mummer
From Middle English mummer, mommer, equivalent to mum + -er, perhaps conflating with Old French momeor (“jester, entertainer”), from mommer (“to wear a mask”), from momon (“mask”). Compare German Mumme (“mask”), 16th Century German mummen (“to disguise oneself”), Middle Dutch mommen, mummen (“to go about in a mask, to disguise”), Middle Low Saxon mommen (“to wear a mask, to disguise”), Dutch mom (“mask”) and mimmen (“to mask”) as well as Spanish momo (“grimace”). Perhaps both of the conflated terms are from the same ultimate root, as note Middle Low Saxon mummen (“to speak indistinctly, to disguise oneself”), Dutch mommen (“to speak indistinctly”), German mummen (“to speak indistinctly”), English mump (“to grimace, mumble”).
Words formed from mummer
Words that rhyme with mummer
Questions about mummer
- What does mummer mean?
- Mummer means a person who dons a disguising costume, as for a parade or a festival.
- What is mummer in Tamil?
- Mummer in Tamil is ஊமைக்காட்சி நடிகர். See Mummer meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is mummer?
- Mummer can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mummer?
- Mummer is pronounced /ˈmʌm.ə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mummer?
- The plural of mummer is mummers.
Words near mummer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mummer (page history and authors); mummer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ادا کار (Urdu) (page history and authors); mummer (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mummer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mummer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mummer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.