| mumpsimus |
| Definition -
(1) Stubbornly persisting in using a mispronunciation or a misspelling, etc. after the mistake has been pointed out to you. (2) A person who does this. |
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Example - "I don't care how everyone spells it. I spell it m-i-s-p-e-l-l." |
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Etymology - The term was coined in allusion to a once well-known story of an illiterate English priest, who when corrected for incorrectly reading [in the Mass] the phrase quod in ore mumpsimus (the latter a nonsense word) instead of quod in ore sumpsimus (that we have taken up in the mouth), replied, ‘I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus.’ |
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Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation is from 1530: "The chauncelars of englond…which be all lawers and other doctoures mumsimusses of diuinyte were called vpp sodenlye to dispute the mater." (Tindale Pract. Prelates Hv,) |
