Chapter Moussali to Mugwump of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Moussali to Mugwump

Moussali A Persian musician. Haroun al Raschid was going to divorce his late favourite Maridah or Marinda, but the poet Moussali sang some verses to him which so touched his heart, that he went in search of the lady and made peace with her. (D'Herbelot.)

Mouth Down in the mouth. (See under Down .)
   His mouth was made, he was trained or reduced to obedience, like a horse trained to the bit.

“At first, of course, the fireworker showed fight ... but in the end `his mouth was made,' his paces formed, and he became a very serviceable and willing animal.”- Le Fanu: House in the Churchyard, ch. xcix.

Mouth Waters That makes my mouth water. “Cela fait venir l'eau à la bouche.” The fragrance of appetising food excites the salivary glands. The phrase means- that makes me long for or desire it.

Moutons Revenons à nos moutons. Return we to our subject. The phrase is taken from an old French play, called L' Avocat, by Patelin, in which a woollendraper charges a shepherd with stealing sheep. In telling his grievance he kept for ever running away from his subject; and to throw discredit on the defendant's attorney, accused him of stealing a piece of cloth. The judge had to pull him up every moment with, “Mais, mon ami, revenons à nos moutons ” (What about the sheep, tell me about the sheep, now return to the story of the sheep).

Movable The first movable. Sir Thomas Browne (Religio Medici, p. 56, 27) uses the phrase, “Beyond the first movable,” meaning outside the material creation. According to Ptolemy the “primum mobile ” (the first movable and first mover of all things) was the boundary of creation, above which came the empyrean heaven, or seat of God.

Moving the Adjournment of the House This is the only method which the rules of the house leave to a member for bringing up suddenly, and without notice, any business which is not on the order paper.

Moving the Previous Question A parliamentary dodge for burking an obnoxious bill. The method is as follows:- A “question,” or bill, is before the house, an objector does not wish to commit himself by moving its rejection, so he moves “the previous question,” and the Speaker moves, from the chair, “that the question be not put”- that is, that the house be not asked to come to any decision on the main question, but be invited to pass to the “orders of the day.” In other words, that the subject be shelved or burked.
   N.B. A motion for “the previous question” cannot be made on an amendment, nor in a select committee, nor yet in a committee of the whole house. The phrase is simply a method of avoiding a decision on the question before the House.

Moving the World Give me where to stand, and I will move the world. So said Archimedes of Syracuse; and the instrument he would have used is the lever.

Mow a heap, and Mow, to cut down, are quite different words. Mow, a heap, is the Anglo-Saxon mowe, but mow, to cut down, is the Anglo-Saxon máw-an.
    There is a third Mow (a wry face), which is the French moue, as “Faire la moue à [quel qu'un],” to make faces at someone, and “Faire la moue,” to pout or sulk. (Dutch, mowe.)

Mowis The bridegroom of snow, who (according to American Indian tradition) wooed and won a beautiful bride; but when morning dawned, Mowis left the wigwam, and melted into the sunshine. The bride hunted for him night and day in the forests, but never saw him more.

Mozaide (2 syl.) or Monzaida. The “Moor,” settled in Calicut, who befriended Vasco da Gama when he first landed on the Indian continent.

“The Moor attends, Mozaide, whose zealous care,
To Gama's eyes revealed each treacherous snare.”
Camoens: Lusiad, bk.ix.

Much or Mudge. The miller's son, in Robin Hood dances, whose great feat was to bang with a bladder of peas the heads of the gaping spectators. Represents the Fool.