mumchance

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”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌm.tʃɑːns/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌm.t͡ʃæns/

mumchance (comparative more mumchance, superlative most mumchance)

1. Mute, or not speaking; silent.
   • 1821, “M.” , “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.

• mummer
• mummery

mumchance (countable and uncountable, plural mumchances)

1. An old game of chance played with cards in silence.
   • 1608, [Thomas Dekker], “Of Barnards Law”, in The Belman of London. , London: [Edward Allde and Nicholas Okes] for Nathaniel Butter, →OCLC, signature F2, recto:

     The Taker oꝛ the Verſer is the man muſt play with him, the Cardes are fetch, Mumchance oꝛ Decoy is the game: the firſt wager is Wine, the ſecond two pence in money, from two pence they riſe to a ſhilling, from that to a pound, […]

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in The Abbot. , volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, , →OCLC, page 319:

     Bear and wolf, look to your prisoner—prance, hobby—hiss, dragon, and halloo, boys—we grow older every moment we stand idle, and life is too short to be spent in playing mumchance.

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

• Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition