Q WHAT is a mugwump and how does it get its name? I have heard it is the name of a plant. - Jack Watson, Newcastle.

A THIS word originated in a Native American dialect. The Alongquins, a group of native Americans in Massachusetts, used the word to mean great chief. Its first recorded use by a European American was in a translation of the Bible into Alongquin by Puritan missionary John Eliot around 1643. He used the word as a substitute for the English words duke and centurion.

In the early part of the 19th Century, it was used as a colloquial term for a boss or person of authority, but today the word has become further removed from its original meaning.

During the American presidential campaign of 1884, a number of Republicans refused to vote for the Republican candidate, James G Blaine, and instead opted to support the Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland. A New York newspaper labelled these rebels as 'little mugwumps', because of their presumptions to power. This led to the word's association with a political turncoat or a politician who could not make up his mind.

Sometimes, it has been said that there are two elements to the mugwump word that reflect the two-faced character of some people who 'sit on the fence' with their mug facing one way and their wump - or perhaps their rump - facing the other. This theory does not, however, acknowledge the actual origins of the word.

I don't know of any connection between mugwumps and plants. I think you have confused mugwump with the word mugwort. Mugwort, also known as motherwort, is a silvery grey aromatic plant of the genus artemisia. The word mugwort comes from the Anglo-Saxon mucgwyrt and the first part of the name 'mucg' or 'mycg' means fly or bug. It is related to the Greek word mya, the Russian word moska and the German mucke, all of which mean mosquito, but its most familiar modern equivalent is midge or midgey, a word used to describe a small fly or gnat.

However, some kinds of mugwort were once used as flavourings in brewing and this has led to the pronunciation 'mug' as in 'mug of beer'. The second part of the name 'wort' derives from the Anglo-Saxon 'wyrt' and is commonly used to describe plants. A well known example is ragwort.

Published: 01/07/2002

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