Other forms: mummers
A mummer is a masked player in a traditional folk performance. The mummers came, a mummers' play, dressed as a mummer.
The plays are performed at Christmas and follow the same shape everywhere, with a fight, a death and a doctor who revives the fallen man. They were nearly extinct and have been revived by villages across England.
1nounmummerA masked player in a traditional folk performance.
“At Christmas, the mummers went from pub to pub performing their old play.”
mummer is a performer.
Middle English mummer is built on mum, to act in a mask, perhaps with Old French momer.
Old French
momeor — jester, entertainer
Middle English
mummer
English, today
mummer
Built from
From Middle English mummer, mommer, equivalent to mum + -er, perhaps conflating with Old French momeor (“jester, entertainer”), from mommer (“to wear a mask”), from momon (“mask”). Compare German Mumme (“mask”), 16th Century German mummen (“to disguise oneself”), Middle Dutch mommen, mummen (“to go about in a mask, to disguise”), Middle Low Saxon mommen (“to wear a mask, to disguise”), Dutch mom (“mask”) and mimmen (“to mask”) as well as Spanish momo (“grimace”). Perhaps both of the conflated terms are from the same ultimate root, as note Middle Low Saxon mummen (“to speak indistinctly, to disguise oneself”), Dutch mommen (“to speak indistinctly”), German mummen (“to speak indistinctly”), English mump (“to grimace, mumble”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA