If you’re mommicked, if you’re bothered, frustrated, or exhausted. Most often heard in coastal North Carolina, mommicked derives from an old word mammock, which as a noun, means “a fragment,” and as a verb, means “to break or tear.” One way to mommick someone is to mubble-squibble them, a local word for treating their scalp to a vigorous knuckle-rub–giving them noogies, in other words. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Mommicked” Means Bothered, Frustrated, or Exhausted”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, Grant.
This is Juanita Winter from Carolina Beach, North Carolina. The word I have is mamak, and it means to the way we use it, it’s used to really foul up something. And I have heard it on the coast, but my mother’s from the Piedmont section of North Carolina, and I’ve never heard folks from the Piedmont use it. And I know what it means, but I don’t know the etymology of it, if there is one. What can you tell us about your family use of it? How did it come about? What do you remember about it?
Well, my grandmother and I guess my dad, too, if something went really south, really wrong, they would say, you know, I’ve just rommed that up using the pass kits. Of momock. Yeah, yeah. So like you’re cooking dinner and you just make a mess of it. You momocked it, right? Or you momocked it up. Right. Exactly. Yeah, this is a word that you will hear a lot in the Outer Banks and Ocracoke and places like that. And it’s spelled a number of different ways, M-O-M-M-I-C-K or M-A-M-M-O-C-K, mammock. Mammock is an old word that means a fragment or a torn piece of something as a noun. And as a verb, it means to break or tear. And in fact, in Shakespeare, one of the characters talks about mammocking the flower beds, decapitating the flowers with lashing blows, leaving petals flying in his wake. So mammocking is really, yeah, mimicking is really messing something up. And so if you’re momicked or you’re mammicked, you’re bothered or you’re frustrated or exhausted or something has definitely gone wrong.
Yes. That is so interesting. Yeah, isn’t it? And actually, if you want to momic somebody in the Outer Banks, you can mumble squibble them. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across that term. But in that part of the country, mumble-squibble is a local word for giving noogies, you know, when you give somebody a scalp and knuckle rub.
Yes.
Oh. You can mummock somebody by mumble-squibbling them. So you confuse them by giving them noogies.
Yes.
That’s wonderful.
All right. Thank you, Juanita. We appreciate it. Take care of yourself. Yeah, call us again sometime. Bye-bye.
Bye.
All right. Thank you. Take good care. Whatever little MAMICs you’d like to discuss, this is the place. 877-929-9673. Or put your MAMICs to keyboard.
