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 forms. Then, as now, dental suffixes indicated the past tense of the weak verbs, as in "work" and "worked". Old English syntax is similar to that of modern English. Some differences are consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection, allowing freer word order. Old English was first written in runes, using the futhorc – a rune set derived from the Germanic 24-character elder futhark, extended by five more runes used to represent Anglo-Saxon vowel sounds, and sometimes by several more additional characters. From around the 9th century, the runic system came to be supplanted by a (minuscule)