The Thirty-Nine Steps (41 page)

mistarshers
NOUN
mistarshers means moustache, which is the hair that grows on a man’s upper lip
when he put his hand up to his mistarshers
(
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy)

morrow
NOUN
here good-morrow means tomorrow and a new and better life
And now good-morrow to our waking souls
(
The Good-Morrow
by John Donne)

mortification
NOUN
mortification is an old word for gangrene which is when part of the body decays or
‘dies’ because of disease
Yes, it was a mortification – that was it
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

mought
PARTICIPLE
mought is an old spelling of might
what you mought call me? You mought call me captain
(
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson)

move
VERB
move me not means do not make me angry
Move me not, Faustus
(
Doctor Faustus 2.1
by Christopher Marlowe)

muffin-cap
NOUN
a muffin cap is a flat cap made from wool
the old one, remained stationary in the muffin-cap and leathers
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

mulatter
NOUN
a mulatter was another word for mulatto, which is a person with parents who are from
different races
a mulatter, most as white as
a white man
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

mummery
NOUN
mummery is an old word that meant meaningless (or pretentious) ceremony
When they were all gone, and when Trabb and his men – but not his boy: I looked for
him – had crammed their mummery into bags, and were gone too, the house felt wholesomer
. (
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

nap
NOUN
the nap is the woolly surface on a new item of clothing. Here the surface has been
worn away so it looks bare
like an old hat with the nap rubbed off
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

natural
NOUN
a natural is a person born with learning difficulties
though he had been left to his particular care by their deceased father, who thought
him almost a natural
. (
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens)
ADJ
natural meant illegitimate
Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody
(
Emma
by Jane Austen)