mumness

mumness

English

Etymology 1

From mum (“silent, secret”) +‎ -ness.

Noun

mumness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being mum or silent.
   • 1891, Tighe Hopkins, The Nugents of Carriconna (page 122)

     Anthony accordingly was mum; but his mumness was visible. He wrapped himself up in secrecy and silence, but both his secrecy and his silence laid him open to the misgivings and the suspicions of those about him.

   • 1979, New York Magazine (volume 12, number 32, page 37)

     Like Thomas More, I can't advise Mrs. Chodorov. I must remain mum. Herewith my mumness.

Etymology 2

From mum (“mother”) +‎ -ness.

Noun

mumness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being a mum (mother).

   Synonyms: mumhood, momness, motherness

   • 1999, Michael Harrison, Facing the Dark, Oxford: Oxford University Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 19:

     ‘Where did you go, love?’ Mum asks, but she asks as if she's not really interested, as if she isn't inside her body any longer, her comfortable familiar mumness.

   • 2020 October 19, Kate Mildenhall, “For women in lockdown with kids, it's impossible to be seen as anything other than a mother”, in The Guardian‎:

     I asked my girlfriends if they’ve had trouble feeling like themselves during lockdown. “My ‘mumness’ is always on show,” said one friend who manages an entire community service. Another, a partner in a consulting firm, bemoans that her colleagues now identify her as a mother: “I hate that they see me like that.”