mussitate

English

WOTD – 16 April 2023

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mussitātus (“kept quiet; having been kept quiet; murmured, muttered; having been muttered”) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs meaning ‘to act [in the specified manner]’). Mussitātus is the perfect passive participle of mussitō (“to keep quiet; to murmur, mutter”), from mussō (“to be silent and respectful; to say in a soft voice, murmur”) (from Proto-Indo-European *mur- (“to murmur”), originally imitative) + -itō (frequentative suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌsɪteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌsɪˌteɪt/
• Hyphenation: mus‧sit‧ate

Verb

mussitate (third-person singular simple present mussitates, present participle mussitating, simple past and past participle mussitated) (obsolete except literary, poetic)

1. (transitive) To say (words, etc.) indistinctly; to mutter.
   • 1676, Theophilus Gale, “Of the Magi, Gymnosophistæ, Druides and Other Barbaric Philosophers”, in The Court of the Gentiles: Or, A Discourse Touching the Traduction of Philosophie from the Scriptures and Jewish Church: […], 2nd edition, London: […] J. Macock for Thomas Gilbert, →OCLC, part II (Of Philosophie), book I (Of Oriental, and Occidental Barbaric Philosophie), page 75:

     As for the Origination of the name Magus, […] others [derive it] from מהגה, one that muſſitates; becauſe the Magi tranſacted al their Incantations by muſſitating or muttering out their vvords.

   • 2007, Greg Delanty, “The Wordmen”, in The Ship of Birth: Poems, Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, →ISBN, page 14:

     It's not impossible that from the very start / I've been at something akin to / what the Dogon buckoos do: / how they mussitate extended tales by heart / of their gene-myths of their ancestors into / their women's auricles.

   • 2020 May 19, Richard M. Beloin, “Oil—Hay—Land—Capers”, in The Harrisons, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

     Jake threw his hat at Hannah and walked to his office with a grin from ear to ear as he mussitated, "and whose fault is that?"

2. (intransitive) To talk indistinctly; to mutter. [from early 17th c.]
   • 1681, “an Healing Hand” [pseudonym; John Bairdy], Balm from Gilead: Or, The Differences about the Indulgence, Stated and Impleaded: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cockerill […], →OCLC, page 162:

     Let none dare to think as vve hear ſome one or tvvo begins to muſſitate, that the Magiſtrates miſcarriages about the matters of Religion, does forfault him of his right to govern, and ſo cadens titulo, is no more to be ovvned as King.

   • 1843, William Elder, “In Relation to the Powers and Prerogatives of the Clergy to Rule and Teach, Claimed to be Immediately from on High Independent of the Laity”, in The Genius of Ecclesiastical Freedom; Comprising the Declaration of Divine Order, Made by the First Convention of the New Church in Union County, Indiana; […], Cincinnati, Oh.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 220:

     Nay, farther, in Isaiah we are taught, concerning those who speak out of the ground, whose voice is as of one who hath a familiar spirit, and whose speech shall whisper, peep, chirp, mutter or mussitate low out of the dust, namely: that they shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, earthquake, great noise, storm and tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire. (xxix. 4, 6.)

   • 1860, Alazon [pseudonym; William Richard Barnes], “XIX [Lord Brougham, Lord George Gordon, Lessons from the East End Riots, the Author’s Fears, Sponsors, and Lord Ebury’s Letter on Ash-Wednesday]”, in Let Well Alone: Or Removal of Blemishes from Church and State, London: Longman & Co. […], →OCLC, page 182:

     Enough remains, however, to make one go mussitating in solitary places, like a banished bull μελεος μελεῳ ποδι χηρενων.

   • 1869 April 1, A. Hall, “Notes and Queries. [Habits of House Mice.]”, in M[ordecai] C[ubitt] Cooke, editor, Hardwicke’s Science-Gossip: An Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and Lovers of Nature, volume V, number 52, London: Robert Hardwicke, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 93, column 1:

     I have now another visitant [a mouse], a much quieter animal: it rustles about a good deal on first entering, but after a while it subsides into a gentle and very peculiar murmuring sound: […] it is really mussitating, i.e., "to gently murmur," […]

   • 1993, Don Paterson, “The Ferryman’s Arms”, in Nil Nil, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 1:

     The boat chugged up to the little stone jetty / without breaking the skin of the water, stretching, / as black as my stout, from somewhere unspeakable / to here, where the foaming lip mussitates endlessly, / trying, with a nutter's persistence, to read / and re-read the shoreline.

   • 2014, Magdalena Zyzak, “In which Odolechka is Introduced to the Automobile, a Technology hitherto Largely in the Domain of Rumor”, in The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, pages 44–45:

     "I, a military man, who might just someday enter politics. Do not cast pearls before gypsies!" he mussitated, walking on, and did not stop until he reached the churchyard, where he faced a peculiar sight.

Related terms

• mussitant (obsolete, rare)
• mussitation (chiefly archaic or obsolete)

Translations

to say (words, etc.) indistinctly; to talk indistinctly — see mutter

Anagrams

• eustatism, meatsuits

Latin

Participle

mussitāte

1. vocative masculine singular of mussitātus