• Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    Is ‘mum’ meaning hush-hush uncommon? I’m American by birth, but I watch Doctor Who and other British shows and they may have warped my vocabulary…

    Mum’s out of the headline, and hush-hush is in. :)

    • Quacksalber
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      1 year ago

      As a non-native speaker, I was reading ‘mum’ as ‘mom’ and that was definitely not making sense.

    • planetaryprotection@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Born and raised in the Midwest here - ‘mum’ meaning silent makes perfect sense to me. It’s not common but I would’ve chalked that up to time, not geography. That said, a saying like “mum’s the word” does strike me as British.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’m pretty familiar with it, coming from the US also. “Mum’s the word”, “stay mum”. Quiet would have been an okay replacement too.