Shu and I saw "The Grand Duke" last night, and it was charming. The program had a veritable dictionary, explaining things to us. Here are a couple of words I was not familiar with:

muckled

falchions

doughty

bumpers (and I don't mean on cars or similar uses)

banns

grig

viragoes


There were tons more, though most could be figured out.

One phrase was miminy-piminy ("over-refined"), which of course reminded us of DDs, which we haven't done in awhile here ("Grand Duke" isn't a DD):

Miminy-Piminy
Gilbert and Sullivan's
H.M.S. Pinafore -
Greatest of hits.

Undemocratically,
Gilbert makes fun of po-
Litical parties and
Classes of Brits.

quote:

miminy-piminy

It's usually niminy-piminy.

That's what I thought, but it was with an m in this publication. I wonder if it was a typo.

Either a typo or a mishearing of the word.

It's in our own Wordcraft Dictionary!

It's probably an alteration of namby-pamby; unusually, we know exactly where namby-pamby comes from. See AWAD and Wikipedia.

From the OED Online (note the 1881 quote):

[QUOTE] miminy-piminy, adj. and n.

Forms: 18 miminee piminee, 18 mimini-pimini, 18 mimminee-pimminee, 18– miminy-piminy.
Etymology: Alteration of niminy-piminy adj., perhaps after mim adj ( Reserved or restrained in manner or behaviour, esp. in a contrived or priggish way; affectedly modest, demure; primly silent, quiet; affectedly moderate or abstemious in diet (rare). Also (occas.) of a person's appearance.) N.E.D. (1906) gives the pronunciation as (mi:miniˌpi·mini) /ˌmɪmɪnɪˈpɪmɪnɪ/.

Obs.
A. adj.

Ridiculously delicate or affected; finicky, over-refined.

[1786 J. Burgoyne Heiress iii. ii. 55 Lady Emily... You have only, when before your glass, to keep pronouncing to yourself nimini-primini. Miss Alscrip. Nimini-pimini-imini, mimini—oh, it's delightfully enfantine.]

1815 M. Pilkington Celebrity II. 229 Your miminy-piminy fears of hurting the feelings.

1839 C. M. Kirkland New Home xxvii. 170 A wreath of flowers of gorgeous hues..in a miminee piminee hand, evidently a young lady's.

1863 C. Reade Hard Cash xxxiii, In a miminy-piminy voice [she] said she was come to make her submission.

1881 W. S. Gilbert Patience ii. 35 A..miminy piminy, Je-ne-sais-quoi young man.

B. n.

Finicky or affected writing; verbosity, prolixity.

1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets viii. 293 All the tantalizing, teasing, tripping, lisping mimminee-pimminee of the highest brilliancy and fashion of poetical diction.

1825 W. Hazlitt Spirit of Age 397 The two lines immediately after..are a mere piece of enigmatical ingenuity and scientific mimminee-pimminee.

Aha! Thanks much, Tinman. Perhaps it's just an alternate spelling.