Mm

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. A sound made to express agreement, satisfaction or thoughtful consideration ; a short written form standing for one thousandth of a metre
2. A murmured expression of assent or pondering ; the abbreviated symbol for a length equal to one thousandth of a metre
3. An informal noise signalling approval or reflection ; a shortened unit label denoting a thousandth part of a metre

Etymology: "Mm" is an abbreviation of "month", and the surprising part is that the full word is a relic of the moon. "Month" comes from Old English "mōnaþ", which goes back to a Germanic root meaning the period of the moon's cycle. The same ancient Indo-European root for "moon" and "month" is shared by the word "moon" itself, so English "month" and "moon" are close relations, and in the Germanic languages the word for the monthly unit of time was built directly on the lunar cycle. Modern Germanic cousins show the same link: Dutch "maand", German "Monat", Swedish "månad" and Icelandic "mánuður" all mean "month" and descend from the same ancestor. The older Old English word for the month was displaced in part by a borrowing from Latin "calendae", the first day of the Roman month, which gave English "calend" for a time before the native word won out.

Synonyms: hmm, mhm