mumps
pronunciation
How to pronounce mumps in British English:
UK [mʌmps]
How to pronounce mumps in American English:
US [mʌmps]
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- Noun:
- an acute contagious viral disease characterized by fever and by swelling of the parotid glands
Word Origin
- mumps
- mumps: [16] The dialect noun mump meant ‘grimace’; and the use of its plural mumps for the disease is thought to have been originally an allusion to the distorted expression caused by the swollen neck glands. Mump itself is presumably related to the verb mump ‘sulk’ [16], and belongs to a family of words (including also mumble [14]) based on the syllable mum, representing an ‘indistinct sound made through closed lips’ (mum ‘silent’ [14] itself, as in ‘keep mum’, comes from this source, as does mummer [15], originally ‘mime actor’).=> mum, mumble, mummer
- mumps (n.)
- type of contagious disease, c. 1600, from plural of mump "a grimace" (1590s), originally a verb, "to whine like a beggar" (1580s), from Dutch mompen "to cheat, deceive," originally probably "to mumble, whine," of imitative origin. The infectious disease probably so called in reference to swelling of the salivary glands of the face and/or to painful difficulty swallowing. Mumps also was used from 17c. to mean "a fit of melancholy."
Example
- 1. We found two studies of the single mumps vaccine .
- 2. These vaccines protect you from getting infected with mumps .
- 3. What 's more , researchers have traced outbreaks of mumps and measles in europe to those who ignore recommended vaccination schedules .
- 4. You can get single vaccines against measles , mumps , and rubella .
- 5. Having the mmr or single mumps vaccine makes your body produce substances called antibodies in your blood .