What is a mugwump? An insult that only Boris Johnson would use
This article is more than 6 years oldHeads are scratched, dictionaries consulted and references unearthed in an effort to understand the attack on Jeremy Corbyn
The foreign secretary has officially entered the general election campaign in a manner befitting no other politician, by introducing a real head-scratcher.
In a column in the Sun, Boris Johnson referred to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as a “mutton-headed old mugwump”, leading to much confusion about the meaning of the term and a peculiar kind of fallout just six weeks before the country heads to the polls.
So what is a mugwump? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there are two definitions: “A bolter from the Republican party in 1884” and “A person who is independent (as in politics) or who remains undecided or neutral”.
The dictionary website says: “Mugwump is an anglicised version of a word used by Massachusett Indians to mean ‘war leader’.” “The word was sometimes jestingly applied in early America to someone who was the ‘head guy’.”
It continues: “The first political mugwumps were Republicans in the presidential race of 1884 who chose to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland rather than their own party’s nominee. Their independence prompted one 1930s humorist to define mugwump as ‘a bird who sits with its mug on one side of the fence and its wump on the other’.”
Wikipedia has a similar definition, with the addendum: “Mugwumps were rightwing, similar in view to the British Tory party.”
The Oxford English Dictionary describes a mugwump as “one who holds more or less aloof from party-politics, professing disinterested and superior views”.
In the world of Harry Potter, the supreme mugwump is the title of the head of the International Confederation of Wizards. The first appointed supreme mugwump was Pierre Bonaccord. However, his appointment was contested by warlocks in Liechtenstein because he wanted to ban troll-hunting and grant rights to trolls.
Albus Dumbledore was also appointed supreme mugwump, but was dismissed from his position after the Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had returned. Dumbledore was restored as a member of the Confederation when the ministry accepted Voldemort’s return, but not as supreme mugwump.
Supporters of Corbyn have long called him a “socialist version” of Dumbledore, the hero and headmaster of Hogwarts. But Last year, JK Rowling put these comparisons to end, tweeting to her millions of followers: “Corbyn. Is. Not. Dumbledore”.
Pretty sure he is, mate @jk_rowling pic.twitter.com/h1NCW0DbXX
— Totally Normal Ben (@IamBenShamrock) August 31, 2016In the William Burroughs novel Naked Lunch, which follows the narration of a junkie, William Lee, mugwumps are a predatory, alien species. “On stools covered in white satin sit naked mugwumps sucking translucent, coloured syrup through alabaster straws,” Burroughs wrote. “Mugwumps have no liver and nourish themselves exclusively on sweets. Thin, purple-blue lips cover a razor-sharp beak of black bone with which they frequently tear each other to shreds in fights over clients.”
In Roald Dahl’s the Twits, the Muggle-Wumps are a group of caged monkeys, but perhaps the closest comparison comes from Dahl’s the complete adventures of Charlie and Mr Willy Wonka, in which Wonka refers to Mrs Bucket as “my dear old muddleheaded mugwump”. “What does it matter that the old girl has become a trifle too old?” Wonka says. “We can put that right in a jiffy! Have you forgotten Wonka-Vite and how every tablet makes you twenty years younger? We shall bring her back! We shall transform her into a blossoming blushing maiden in the twink of an eye!”
Despite the fallout from the mugwump incident, Johnson has stuck by his choice of the word. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the former London mayor said: “I apologise to mugwumps everywhere.”
During an appearance on the Today programme to talk about Labour’s housebuilding pledge, John Healey, the shadow housing minister, said he, like many people, had to look up the meaning of the term “mugwump”, and that its use reflected more on the writer of the column than the target.
“I think this is Boris Johnson feeling left out of the election campaign,” Healy said, calling the incident “look-at-me name-calling that you’d see in the Eton playground”.
He said such an attack demeaned the office of the foreign secretary. “Don’t attack the person debate the policies … let the people see a leaders’ debate.”
Here's a #mugwump spotted in his natural environment. Shy, elusive creatures who live among the elite & never stray from their own species. pic.twitter.com/YF8QhYKq2H
— The Bear (@Engrugger) April 27, 2017In his column, Johnson also said the leader of the opposition was more than just “an essentially benign Islingtonian herbivore”, adding: “The biggest risk with Jeremy Corbyn is that people just don’t get what a threat he really is.”
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