About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have loved Shakespeare all my life, and as a Stage Director and Actor for over twenty-five years I have had the opportunity to study his work in intimate detail. I would be happy to share my knowledge of his plays. I can also help with acting Shakespeare, working with blank verse, character development, script analysis and interpretation. I don`t have as much knowledge in the area of his sonnets, but I can help to understand their meaning and language. I also have some knowledge of his life and of the Globe theatre where he performed his plays, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company and his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, and can point you in the direction of some wonderful websites on the subjects as well.
Experience
Organizations SSDC - associate member The Shakespeare Institute (MA Candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
The Shakespeare Association of America
Question I am interested in the word "mommick" used in Appalachia and the Outer Banks, probably originating in the west of England. Does not Shakespeare say "mommick a string" somewhere---maybe Twelfth Night?
Answer Hi Lanny,
According to my resources, the word "mommick" does not appear anywhere in Shakespeare's works (even when I tried different forms and spellings). But that doesn't mean it wasn't used in Elizabethan times. I think, perhaps, the word you are thinking of has a slightly different spelling.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, lists the word "mommuck" with the following definition
"mom·muck (mŏm'ək)
tr.v. mom·mucked, mom·muck·ing, mom·mucks
Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
To harass; bother. See Note at Ocracoke Island.
[Alteration of dialectal mammock, to tear, botch up, from archaic mammock, a scrap.]"
I think this "Note at Ocracoke Island" may help explain something of what you are looking for.
The note reads:
"Our Living Language : Ocracoke is one of the Outer Banks barrier islands off the North Carolina coast. The island has a small town of about 650 year-round residents. The Ocracoke community, established in the early 1700s by people of British descent, has remained relatively isolated from the mainland for nearly three centuries. During this period of isolation, Ocracokers developed a unique dialect of American English that residents and outsiders often refer to as the 'brogue', perhaps because some of the oldest Ocracoke families have Irish and Scotch-Irish roots. Some of the Ocracoke brogue's more prominent features are retentions of older features of English that vanished from most mainland dialects long ago. For example, older Ocracokers say 'hit' for it and 'a-huntin' for hunting. Similarly, some Ocracoke words, such as 'mommuck' ("to harass or bother") and 'quamish' ("sick in the stomach"), date back to at least Shakespeare's day. But contrary to popular belief, Ocracoke English is not Elizabethan English preserved unchanged since the first English speakers came to the island. All languages and dialects change over time, even those far removed from the influence of outside language varieties. Pronunciations are particularly susceptible to change. Thus, some of the most familiar pronunciation features of the Ocracoke dialect probably do not date back to the community's earliest origins but are more likely innovations that developed around the turn of the 20th century. Its best-known feature is the pronunciation of the vowel sound in words like high and tide as similar to "oi", so that high tide sounds like "hoi toid". In fact, Ocracokers and neighboring islanders are often known as "hoi toiders". In recent decades, Ocracokers have had increasing contact with outsiders as the island's traditional marine-based economy has become tourism-based. With this influx of mainlanders, the Ocracoke brogue is rapidly fading away. Nonetheless, because it allows islanders to distinguish themselves from tourists and new residents—and thus preserve their identity—prominent features of the Ocracoke brogue may remain unaffected by contact with other speech communities."
That certainly gives some idea of the derivation of this word, even if Shakespeare himself didn't use it. Perhaps other playwrights of the period did, or perhaps you are thinking of a similar word when it comes to Shakespeare's plays. But certainly "mommuck" is a word that came from Elizabethan times and continued in this unique environment.
