Mealy-mouthed Shaksper
Art Neuendorffer
Francis Meres: "the sweet witty soul of Ovid lies in mellifluous,
honey tongued Shakespeare".
Richard Barnfield: "And Shakespeare thou.whose HONY-flowing Vaine,
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"Honey-tongued Shakespeare," - John Weever Epigrams (1599)
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Mealy-mouthed is the Greek melimuthos (honey-speech), and means
velvet-tongued, afraid of giving offence. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
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BIRON To show his teeth as white as WHALE's bone;
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of HONEY-tongued Boyet.
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Moby Dick ch.32 - Cetology
BOOK III. (DUODECIMO), CHAPTER III. (MEALY-MOUTHED PORPOISE).
The largest kind of Porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is
known. The only English name, by which he has hitherto been designated,
is that of the fishers--Right-Whale Porpoise, from the circumstance that
he is chiefly found in the vicinity of that Folio. In shape, he differs
in some degree from the Huzza Porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly
girth; indeed, he is of quite a neat and gentleman-like figure. He has
no fins on his back (most other porpoises have), he has a lovely tail,
and sentimental Indian eyes of a hazel hue. But his mealy-mouth spoils
all. Though his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable,
yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship's hull, called the
"bright waist," that line streaks him from stem to stern, with two
separate colours, black above and white below. The white comprises part
of his head, and the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he
had just escaped from a felonious visit to a meal-bag. A most mean and
mealy aspect! His oil is much like that of the common porpoise.
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http://www.broca.org/2002_09_01_archive.html
Mealy-mouthed - unwilling or afraid to speak plainly Although this now
implies insincerity or even hypocrisy, it originally meant no more than
'soft-spoken'. Mealy is the adjective from 'meal' in its sense of
powdered grain, as in wholemeal. Mealy-mouthed therefore expressed a
comparison between a soft voice (of diminished strength) and soft grain
(reduced to powder from its original size).
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http://www.mech-eng.leeds.ac.uk/www_rgt/544.html
Falsehood. -- N. falsehood, falseness; falsity, falsification;
deception; untruth; guile; lying; untruth; guile; lying &c. v.
misrepresentation; mendacity, perjury, false
swearing; forgery, invention, fabrication; subreption; covin.
perversion of truth, suppression of truth; suppressio veri; perversion,
distortion, false coloring; exaggeration; prevarication, equivocation,
shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud.
sham; pretense, pretending, malingering.
lip homage, lip service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere show, mere
outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant,
humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, "organized
hypocrisy'; crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness, quackery; charlatanism,
charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum, bumcombe, flam; bam*, flimflam, cajolery,
flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy; il volto sciotlo i pensieri stretti.
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http://www.mail-archive.com/wo...@tlk-lists.com/msg00072.html
To be mealy-mouthed is to speak in circles, to be unwilling
to directly state facts or opinions. The phrase carries
a strong sense of disapproval.
Scarlett: You'd rather live with that silly little fool who can't
open her mouth except to say "yes" or "no" and raise a passel
of mealy-mouthed brats just like her.
Ashley: You mustn't say unkind things about Melanie.
Some etymologists have linked this phrase with the Latin mel (honey).
The connection may seem appropriate, since a mealy-mouthed person
might also be called "honey-tongued."
The source of the phrase is actually more direct: a mealy-mouthed
person is like someone whose mouth is full of meal (powdered grain),
unable to speak clearly. There's a German expression, "Mehl im Maule
behalten" (literally, to carry meal in one's mouth) that means "to speak
indirectly." Our phrase most likely came from the German expression,
or a similar one in another Germanic language.
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Art Neuendorffer