Mum's the word Mum's the word Mum's the word is a popular English idiom. It is related to an expression used by William Shakespeare, in "Henry VI, Part 2". The word “mum” is a slanged version of momme, which was used between 1350-1400 in Middle English with very close to the same meaning: Be silent; Do not reveal "Mum's the word" means to keep silent or quiet. "Mum" is a Middle English word meaning 'silent', and may be derived from the "mummer" who acts without speaking. Note the similar English word "mime" (Old English "mīma", Latin "mimus") meaning silent actor or imitator. The
Old English literature the Bible ("Old English Hexateuch"), portions have been assigned to Ælfric on stylistic grounds. He included some lives of the saints in the "Catholic Homilies", as well as a cycle of saints' lives to be used in sermons. Ælfric also wrote an Old English work on time-reckoning, and pastoral letters. In the same category as Ælfric, and a contemporary, was Wulfstan II, archbishop of York. His sermons were highly stylistic. His best known work is "Sermo Lupi ad Anglos" in which he blames the sins of the English for the Viking invasions. He wrote a number of clerical legal texts