| 释义 |
mugwump, n. orig. U.S.|ˈmʌgwʌmp|
[a. Natick mugquomp great chief (occurring in Eliot's Massachusetts Bible, e.g. in Gen. xxxvi. 15, where it answers to the ‘duke’ of the Eng. Bible).]
1. A jocular term for: A great man, a ‘boss’.
1832in Nation (1891) 21 May 414/3 It has extensively circulated among the Knights of Kadosh and the Most Worshipful Mugwumps of the Cabletow. 1877J. H. Bromley in N.Y. Tribune 16 Feb., John A. Logan is the Head Centre, the Hub, the King Pin, the Main Spring, Mogul, and Mugwump of the final plot. 1925N.Y. Times 10 May, The royal red Indian mugwump, the chief, was copiously red-blooded. 1945[see bigwig].
2. One who holds more or less aloof from party-politics, professing disinterested and superior views. In 1884, spec. applied to Republicans who refused to support the nominee of their party for president. Also, a person who withdraws his support from any group or organization; one who is aloof, independent, or self-important.
1884N.Y. Even. Post 20 June (Cent.), We have yet to see a Blaine organ which speaks of the Independent Republicans otherwise than as Pharisees, hypocrites, dudes, mugwumps, transcendentalists, or something of that sort. 1884W. Everett Sp. at Quincy, Mass. 13 Sept. (Stanf.), I am an independent—a Mugwump. 1884Sat. Rev. 22 Nov. 659/1 It may be that in a few years..a little group of British Mugwumps..will arise in their might [etc.]. 1887J. D. Billings Hardtack & Coffee xv. 286 [The mule's] reputation as a kicker is world-wide. He was the Mugwump of the service. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lvi. 379 The case of these Independents, or Mugwumps, is an illustrative one... Very few.. take an active part in ‘politics’, however interested they may be in public affairs. 1890C. L. Norton Polit. Americanisms 74 Mugwump. 1894P. L. Ford Hon. Peter Stirling 302 I'd have believed anything but that you [sc. a Democrat] would be a dashed Mugwump! 1898Academy 22 Oct. 109 Halifax is, of course, the typical ‘trimmer’, which is to say ‘mugwump’ of Restoration politics. 1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 116, I told him I did not care whether he got into parliament or not; so he called me Mugwump and went his way. 1923H. E. Buchholz Of what Use are Common People? vi. 66 Mugwump may be thought of as a fitting term for the man who because of real or imagined superiority separates himself from the group with which he has been associated. Ibid. 73 The proposal of the intelligence mugwumps is that the majority of ordinary minds should step out of the picture of the body politic,..while creatures with better than normal minds should be commissioned to do all the thinking. 1946Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 31 Mar. 4/7 A few moments after Secretary Wallace made his pun, he hastened to add that he himself had been a mugwump. 1975Sat. Rev. 22 Mar. 58/3 Among the delicious names taken by, or given to, minor political parties in the United States (apart from Mugwumps and Bull Moose) are.. Quids, Locofocos, [etc.].
3. attrib. or as adj. That is a mugwump; of or pertaining to mugwumps.
1887Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 8 Jan. 4/5 The Mugwump War Department is a horse-power to the Republican machine. 1923H. E. Buchholz Of what Use are Common People? viii. 108 The various mugwump groups that propose changing the form of the present government. 1931H. F. Pringle Theodore Roosevelt i. ix. 115 Roosevelt's gnawing hatred of the Mugwump independents made it impossible for him to withdraw. 1970Times 9 Dec. 16/2 Even a doubtful and controversial conclusion..would have been more useful than this irritating mugwump approach.
Hence ˈmugwump v. intr., to play the part of a mugwump; mugˈwumpery, ˈmugwumpism; ˈmugwumpish a., characteristic of a mugwump; professing disinterestedness; pretentiously superior.
1885Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 13 Apr. 2/2 Will E. Haskell of the Minneapolis Tribune says that ‘Previousness is one of the worst characteristics of Mugwumpery’. 1886Congress. Rec. 31 Mar. 2968/1 That maudlin political sentiment which we recognize, for want of a better, under the name of ‘Mugwumpism’. 1887Nation 31 Mar. 265/1 It will thus be seen that Mugwumpism is growing both in the East and the West. 1889N.Y. Tribune 10 Mar. (Cent.), They mugwumped in 1884. 1898G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) III. 297 It [sc. Hamlet] belongs to a detached residence, a select library, an exclusive circle, to no occupation, to fathomless boredom, to impenitent mugwumpism. 1918F. Hackett Ireland ix. 252 This conviction was accompanied..with many mugwumpish strictures such as ‘in the main’, ‘within certain limits’, [etc.]. 1923Spectator 22 Sept. 390/1 Racial, intellectual or moral tests..may turn out to be not aristocratic at all, but merely mugwumpish. |