Dictionary

muumuu en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈmuːmuː/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmuˌmu/ (General-American)
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Hawaiian muʻumuʻu, from muʻumuʻu (“to be cut off; to be shortened”, verb), probably because the garment is a short-sleeved and often calf-length version of the floor-length holoku or Mother Hubbard dress which has long sleeves and originally a train.

Meanings

1. (Hawaii) A long, often calf-length, loose-fitting dress chiefly with short sleeves which is made of lightweight fabric printed with colourful, stylized Hawaiian themes (such as flowers and palm branches).
   • If you know someone who lives in the Islands, chances are your resident friend will have her own seamstress, probably a Japanese or Chinese-American housewife who does dressmaking on the side. […] Prices of dressmaking are extremely reasonable, probably not more than $4.00 for making a muumuu summer dress, or sunback dress. 1952 November, “Fabric Shopping in Hawaii”, in Walter L. Doty, editor, Sunset: The Magazine of Western Living, volume 109, number 5, Menlo Park, Calif.: Lane Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34, column 2:
   • Of course I'd be all bloated by then, like Michael Winner, but perhaps with braids in my hair and gold teeth, wearing a moomoo (I think that's what they're called – either way, one of them things you wear when you're fat). 2007, Russell Brand, “Don’t Die of Ignorance”, in My Booky Wook, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 183:
   • [W]e saw Ruth in a pink muumuu having a bath and finally getting into the "kahe" and catching the mullet herself, beheading, and enjoying the tid-bits that she found. 1917 April 27 (date delivered), Josephine Wundenberg King, “Reminiscences of Hanalei, Kauai […] (Read before the Kauai Historical Society April 27, 1917)”, in Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society for the Year 1930: With Papers Read at the Annual Meeting February 10, 1931, Honolulu, Hi.: Hawaiian Printing Co. […], published 1931, →OCLC, page 46:
   • I don't want to look like a weirdo. I'll just go with a muumuu. 1995, Dan Greaney, “King-Size Homer” (09:46 from the start), in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 7, spoken by Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta):
   • Everybody fools somebody sometime—one way or another. But Abraham Lincoln said no one could fool all of the people all of the time. Well, I can. I can fool you even wearing a moo-moo. 1980, John Patrick, “Masquerade”, in That’s Not My Father! Three One Act Plays, London; New York, N.Y.: Samuel French, →ISBN, page 58:
   • Short and zoftig, she [Sue Mengers] wore muumuus and rose-tinted, oversize glasses, was loud, abrasive, and very funny. 1998, Peter Biskind, “The Moviegoer”, in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock’n’Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 132:
   • We have had some very hot weather since last I wrote. […] Fanny and Valentine have taken to mumus and holakus, but I am putting off as long as I can. So far I have been content to discard all woollen garments and stiff or fitted bodices, and I often wear boots without stockings. 1888 July 15 (date written), M[argaret] I[sabella] Stevenson, “The Cruise of the ‘Casco’”, in Marie Clothilde Balfour, editor, From Saranac to the Marquesas and beyond: Being Letters Written by Mrs. M. I. Stevenson during 1887–88, to Her Sister, Jane Whyte Balfour, […], London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1903, →OCLC, page 70:
   • She turned to the description of the character. "Marcia is a forty-something, thrice-divorced, chain-smoking bottle blonde with plus-size hips and a super-size mouth. For most of the play, she wears a Hawaiian print muu-muu." She made a face. "Why is it always a muu-muu? I've never known a woman in real life who wore one, but half the fat women who've appeared onstage have worn muu-muus." 2009, Cindi Myers, chapter 11, in The Man Most Likely, Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN, page 154:

Forms

Deriveds

muumuued

Translations (13)

ja ムームー (long, loose-fitting dress) · ff muʻumuʻu (long, loose-fitting dress) · pl muʻumuʻu (long, loose-fitting dress) · fi muumuu (long, loose-fitting dress) · sv muumuu (long, loose-fitting dress) · ru муу-муу (long, loose-fitting dress) · fr muumuu (long, loose-fitting dress) · es muumuu (long, loose-fitting dress) · it muumuu (long, loose-fitting dress) · sh mumu (long, loose-fitting dress) · de Muʻumuʻu (long, loose-fitting dress) · it muʻumuʻu (long, loose-fitting dress) · haw muʻumuʻu (long, loose-fitting dress)