mundungus

English

Alternative forms

Variant spellings

• (remodeled to resemble a singular noun of the Latin second declension)
  • mundungus [17th century onward]
• (with an ending resembling its Spanish etymon)
  • mundungo [17th–20th centuries]
• (pluralia tantum, with implied singular senses)
  • mondongas [17th century]
  • mundungas [17th century]
  • mundungoes [17th century]
  • mundungo’s [17th century]
  • mundungos [17th century]

Etymology

From the Spanish mondongo (“tripe, entrails”), perhaps via its English etymon mondongo.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mŭndŭngʹgəs, IPA^(key): /mʌnˈdʌŋɡəs/
• (US) enPR: mən'dəngʹgəs, IPA^(key): /ˌmənˈdəŋɡəs/

Noun

mundungus (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Offal; waste animal product; organic matter unfit for consumption.
   • 1767, November 5, George Faulkner, a letter to William Bowyer:

     Claret is the universal medicine here, and mundungus port the bane and stupefaction of all society.

2. (archaic) Poor-quality tobacco with a foul, rancid, or putrid smell.
   • 1728 July 28, My Lady's Lamentation and Complaint Against the Dean‎^[1], Jonathan Swift:

     Whom he brings in among us
     And bribes with mundungus;

   • 1755, Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, pages 130–131:

     The whole town of Ryde could not supply a single leaf [of tea]; for as to what Mrs. Francis and the shop called by that name, it was not of Chinese growth. It did not indeed in the least resemble tea, either in smell or taste, or in any particular, unless in being a leaf: for it was in truth no other than a tobacco of the mundungus species.

   • 1801 May, William Cobbett, “Porcupine's Works; Containing Various Writings and Selections, Exhibiting a Faithful Picture of the United States of America; etc.”, in A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats, Part I, volume 2, page 50:

     Nobody can doubt, particularly if country be taken into the consideration, that the grinders and retailers of Mundungus were among the author's encouragers. … that he had told the Secretary of the Treasury, that if the Mundungus was taxed, “he would be damn'd if ever he forgave him, while he had an existence.”

References

• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Mundungus”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: […] C. Chappell, […], →OCLC.
    Mundungus. Bad or rank tobacco : from mondongo, a Spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails of a beast, full of filth.
• “†munˈdungus” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
• “mundungus, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [draft revision; Mar. 2010]