Does not Shakespeare say “mommick a string” somewhere—maybe Twelfth Night?
Answer Hi Lanny, According to my resources, the word “mommick” does not appear anywhere in Shakespeare’s works (even when I tried different forms and spellings). But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t used in Elizabethan times. I think, perhaps, the word you are thinking of has a slightly different spelling. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, lists the word “mommuck” with the following definition “mommuck (mŏm’ək) tr.v. mommucked, mommucking, mommucks Ocracoke Island, North Carolina To harass; bother. See Note at Ocracoke Island. [Alteration of dialectal mammock, to tear, botch up, from archaic mammock, a scrap.]” I think this “Note at Ocracoke Island” may help explain something of what you are looking for. The note reads: “Our Living Language : Ocracoke is one of the Outer Banks barrier islands off the North Carolina coast. The island has a small town of about 650 year-round residents. The Ocracoke community, established in the early 1700s by people of
