Mum
/mʌm/noun
A British informal word for mother; also means silent or not speaking.
Did you know?The mother-sense of English mum is part of a huge cross-linguistic pattern of nursery words built from the easiest consonants and vowels, which is why similar forms for “mother” appear in many unrelated languages.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
mōdor
“mother”
Early Modern English
English
mum
“mother, especially in child speech and dialect”
16th Century
English
mum
“silent; without speaking”
Modern English
English
mum
“mother; silent, quiet”