mussitation

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
magi
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 2:18 pm

mussitation

Postby magi » Wed May 31, 2006 1:27 pm

mussitation
n.

Movement of the lips as if speaking but without sound.
Not even the five fingers of our hands are alike.
--Afghan proverb

tcward
Wordmaster
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Wed May 31, 2006 5:21 pm

Interesting! I didn't know that we had a word for mouthing the words...!

I wonder if there is a word for the somewhat autonomic mimic-mouthing of the parent feeding the infant with a spoon... Now that I have had three kids, I find myself doing this even though my youngest is 4 years old and doesn't watch me for such cues...

-Tim

Huia Iesou
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Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:21 pm

Postby Huia Iesou » Wed May 31, 2006 5:27 pm

I recently discovered the Latin word musso, mussare, but I didn't realize it had come down to English. Is there an English verb for mussitation?

tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Wed May 31, 2006 5:42 pm

In my search for answers I discovered that this had already been a Good Word...

http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword ... ussitation

The English variant is mutter. As for the strict medicinal meaning, perhaps a verb form would be mussitate, but most likely it occurs in the noun and adjective forms in such documents.

-Tim


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