mummy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmʌmi/
rhymes: -ʌmi
Forms: form: mummies
Etymology: From Middle English mummie, from Anglo-Norman mumie, from Middle French momie, from Medieval Latin mumia, from Arabic مُومِيَاء (mūmiyāʔ), from Persian مومیا (mumyâ), from موم (mum, “wax”). Doublet of mumijo.
Senses: examples: text: 1832, Royal Society (Great Britain), Abstracts of The Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, From 1800 to 1830 inclusive, Volume 1: 1800-1814, page 201,
[…] Mr. Pearson proceeds to give a particular description of the very perfect mummy of an Ibis, which forms the chief subject of the present paper.
text: Leo was the first to discover what these burdens were. `Great heaven!' he said, `they are corpses on fire!' I stared and stared again - he was perfectly right - the torches that were to light our entertainment were human mummies from the caves! On rushed the bearers of the flaming corpses, and, meeting at a spot about twenty paces in front of us, built their ghastly burdens crossways into a huge bonfire.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: But, more horrible, I had not failed to note that its purplish gleaming body resembled that of a human being - or of a chrysalis encasing one - or of a mummy!
ref: 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page ii. 17:
text: Many people believed in the curse of the mummy, and soon, the curse had become an accepted part of Tut′s legend.
ref: 2008, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Mysteries Unwrapped: The Real Monsters, page 2:
glosses: An embalmed human or non-human animal corpse wrapped in linen bandages for burial, especially as practised by the ancient Egyptians and some Native American tribes.
examples: text: For many, mummies fascinate more than repel. Our horrific connotations lie not so much with the mummy itself, but in associated fears. The mummy serves, of course, as a general reminder of our own mortality and our fear of death, but this alone is not enough to make it a monster.
ref: 2007, S. T. Joshi, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, volume 1, page 376:
glosses: A reanimated embalmed human corpse, as a stock character in horror films.
examples: text: 'Mummy,' that is pounded ancient Egyptian, is, I believe, a pigment much used by artists, and especially by those of them who direct their talents to the reproduction of the works of the old masters.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
synonyms: mummy brown
glosses: Any naturally preserved human or non-human animal body.
synonyms: mummy brown
glosses: Any naturally preserved human or non-human animal body.
(countable, uncountable, now rare) A brown pigment originally prepared from the ground-up remains of Egyptian animal or human mummies mixed with bitumen, etc.
A brown pigment originally prepared from the ground-up remains of Egyptian animal or human mummies mixed with bitumen, etc.
examples: text: Imagine twenty thouſand of them breaking into the midſt of an European Army, confounding the Ranks, overturning the Carriages, battering the Warriors Faces into Mummy, by terrible Yerks from their hinder Hoofs.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Veracity. His Design in Publishing this Work. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 345:
text: Going up to him, therefore, he laid hold on his lance, and breaking it, began to thresh him so severely, that, in spite of the resistance of his armour, he was almost beaten into mummy […].
ref: 1755, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett, Don Quixote, Volume 1, I.4:
text: You may beat them to a mummy, you may put them upon the rack, you may burn them on a gridiron, […] yet you will never remove them from that innate fidelity […]
ref: 1837, Mathew Carey, Vindiciae Hibernicae, page 116:
glosses: A pulp.
examples: text: Yet another scatological medicament was obtained from mummy, the material derived from a dried or embalmed human corpse, the most valuable being that imported from Mizraim (ancient Egypt).
ref: 1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 253:
text: Nonetheless, his book advertises many Paracelsian remedies, including laudanum, mummy, antimony and mercury.
ref: 2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 360:
text: In or near this place is a precious liquor, or mummy, growing, Mumnaky-koobasa they call it, which none presumes to take, it being carefully preserved for the King's sole use.
ref: 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: A substance used in medicine, prepared from mummified flesh.
topics: agriculture
business
horticulture
lifestyle
glosses: A sort of wax used in grafting.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: corn mummy
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummia
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummification
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummiform
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummify
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummiology
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy bag
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy brown
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy cloth
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummyish
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummylike
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy nut
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummyology
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy portrait
sense: Terms derived from mummy (embalmed body)
word: mummy wheat
Related terms: corpse