MUNG {W.E.L Series}*
For years the word "mung" has had only one meaning for me. As a crossword puzzle worker, I learned long ago that a four-letter word for "bean" was going to be either "lima" or "mung."
Now, however, as a result of computer enlightenment, I find that it has meant a great deal more than that for some years and ranks high among thousands of words I have not known.
I certainly should have come across the military usage of the term which designtes that gastonomic treat featured in GI mess halls worldwide commonly referred to as "SOS". It was an ad-lib recipe dreamed up by desperate army cooks who found themselves without anything other than meat scraps and the makings for gravy of a sort. It could vary from base to base base. I emember it being called "S.O.S/" and less offensive "C.O.C.",but never did I hear it called "mung" . It ties in rather well with the acronym source (one view), however, and may have come into being since the era of WWII, or some other wartime era.
It is used as a sort of jargon, of course, and it dates from around 1960. It is said to have originated relative to something being destroyed either maliciously or by accident. It means "to destroy" . It seems to equate with "Destroy after expiration date" we fiud on medication continers. It is suggested we examine the terms scribble, mangle, trash, and nuke.
I have been mispronouncing the word, as well, I find. It is not "mung-hung", but, rather more cultured in sound as "muhng" or "muhnj". The spelling "mung"" is at fault in the same sense as the spelling of the word "kluge", I am told. (which I will also have to investigate as a result of all this disclosure.
The final comment concerning word deals with the bean of which I knew, or thought I did. Actually the Chinese foods we eat do not use the bean but only the sprouts thereof, so I was off base there as well. "Mung" is the real name of the bean, it seems, so it pre-dates the other usages, I suppose. We tend to enlarge upon the intent of such words as technology advances, too.
The word is now referred to as a "hacker" term as well. It is said to have orignated a in 1958, the year Peter Samson, who compiled a TMRC lexicon thought it originated as an onomatopoeic sound word emulating the noise made by a relay spring (contact) being twanged.
Remember: it is spelled "mung", pronounced "muhnj" and it means a great deal more than a crossword "bean" - just exactly what is still up for grabs, however.
{W.E.L Series - Our Wonderful, Ever-expanding English Language!}
A.L.M. October 8, 2003 [c487wds]
