mumpsimus / sumpsimus
Jul. 19th, 2012 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordmumpsimus (MUMP-suh-muhs) - n., an obvious error repeated despite correction; a person who obstinately adheres to old ways (of usage, belief, practice, and so on).
sumpsimus (SUMP-suh-muhs) - n., a correct expression that takes the place of a popular but incorrect expression; correctness regarded as pedantic; a person who is obstinate or zealous about strict correctness.
This pair comes from a story that became current in 1517, possibly originating with Erasmus or an elaboration of a medieval joke, about an illiterate priest who had incorrectly memorized a phrase from the Latin Eucharist quod in ore sūmpsimus ("which we have taken into the mouth") as quod in ore mumpsimus ("which we have mumped in the mouth," more or less), and when corrected replied, "I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus" and would not even after being shown the text of the office. FWIW, sūmpsimus is the first-person plural perfect indicative of Latin sūmere, to pick up, which appears in English as, for ex, the stem of consume.
---L.
sumpsimus (SUMP-suh-muhs) - n., a correct expression that takes the place of a popular but incorrect expression; correctness regarded as pedantic; a person who is obstinate or zealous about strict correctness.
This pair comes from a story that became current in 1517, possibly originating with Erasmus or an elaboration of a medieval joke, about an illiterate priest who had incorrectly memorized a phrase from the Latin Eucharist quod in ore sūmpsimus ("which we have taken into the mouth") as quod in ore mumpsimus ("which we have mumped in the mouth," more or less), and when corrected replied, "I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus" and would not even after being shown the text of the office. FWIW, sūmpsimus is the first-person plural perfect indicative of Latin sūmere, to pick up, which appears in English as, for ex, the stem of consume.
---L.
