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Mookum

Mooks mook mookum.

Dear Word Detective: I have been trying to discover anything about a term my father used to mean “inferior” or “unacceptable”: “mookum” (spelling my approximation of his pronunciation).  He was born in 1915 in the US and knew no Canadians, even during WWII, but his term seems to be an antonym of “skookum.” Your past column on “mook,” dating from the 1930’s, is the closest I’ve come to tracking this down. Any ideas? — Julia Logan.

That’s a great question. But before we begin, I should clarify that it was the word “mook” which first appeared in the 1930s, not my column about “mook” (which dates to the slightly less ancient year of 1997). Much as I would have liked to experience the 1930s (except, you know, the Depression, the rise of Hitler, etc.), ’twas not to be. It’s just as well; if I’d been around in the 1930s, I’d probably have missed out on Facebook and Twitter. Quick, Watson, to the time machine!

Your explanation of your father’s use of “mookum” as seeming to be an antonym of “skookum” is fascinating. “Skookum” is a great word, popular in the Pacific Northwest of the US and Canada, meaning “first-rate; excellent,” “intrepid, brave” or simply “very powerful or strong.” The word “skookum” is Chinook Indian jargon from the Salishian language of the region, and originally meant “evil spirit,” “disease” or “fearsome monster,” which was generalized into “powerful” and from there to “very good” and all the other positive senses of “skookum” today. “Skookum” has been used by English-speakers at least since the 1820s, and is a popular regional term in the Pacific Northwest (“Ted, by this time a skookum young fellow of 20, then turned his eyes further west,” 1975).

“Mook,” as I noted back in 1997, is slang meaning “an incompetent, stupid person,” especially one of low social class (“Even ordinary mooks like you and me have been stuffing their blotters and backs of envelopes in safe deposits for posterity,” S.J. Perelman, 1930). The “mook” is the schlub who spends high school sitting in the back of the classroom and whose name you can never remember in when friends point to him in the class picture.

The origin of “mook” is uncertain, but it’s probably a form of “moke,” which appeared in Britain in the early 19th century as regional slang for “donkey.” No one knows the roots of “moke” either, but it has also been used to mean “a fool or contemptible person.” It was also, for a time, derogatory slang in the US for an African-American person.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any sign of “mookum” or anything similar used, as your father did, to mean “inferior or unacceptable.” But I strongly suspect that with “mookum”  he was, in fact, using “mook” as an adjective. The similarity of “mook” meaning “inferior, contemptible person” to “mookum” meaning “inferior, unacceptable” is just too strong to be a coincidence. I also suspect, though less strongly, that the “um” ending of “mookum” is by analogy to “bunkum,” early 20th century US slang for “nonsense” and more usually seen today in the  simpler form “bunk.” (The fascinating story of “bunkum,” too long to recount here, can be found here.)

The fact that I have not been able to find “mookum” in print doesn’t mean that your father necessarily invented it (although that’s not impossible). It is not uncommon for slang terms to flourish in oral use for decades before someone uses them in print so we can trace them decades later, and it’s reasonable to assume that a certain number of them fade away without ever being immortalized in a novel, newspaper article, etc. But whether your father actually invented “mookum” or simply picked it up along the way, I think it’s a great word that deserves a second chance.

5 comments to Mookum

  • Helene Kirschbaum

    I’m wondering if mook is a shortened form of “jamoke”, an idiot of the Italian variety.

  • Dorman

    Helene — I have actually seen that word written as jamook — don’t hold me to it, but I believe it might have been in an online discussion (about the origins of mook) which involved, at one point, the late, great Harlan Ellison, who was known to drop in and comment and chat with visitors to the online site devoted to him and his work.

    I don’t recall if the Italian work jamoke was ever introduced into the discussion, but — either way — it seems as if YOUR contribution should be added to all the evidence collected by “The Word Detective”. :)

  • PieCatLady

    Hello Word Detective. My first visit to your site and (ta-da!) here’s more info than I was looking for. Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach, “Law and Order” TV show) frequently called unsavory characters “mooks” which was a new word to me. Thought I’d find out the origin, years later of course. Then here’s “mookum” and “skookum” – good additions to my slanguage of choice. Thanks much and see…er READ…you again soon.

  • Patrick

    I heard it used by the Italian sect when I lived in Boston. “Ahhh, youse guys are just a bunch of mooks”, or “Joey… What a mook that kid is…”

  • Parsifal

    My understanding was that “mook” was theatre slang for players with insignificant roles — whether just non-speaking parts or including small parts with a couple lines, I don’t know. From there the expansion to insignificant people generally would be natural.

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