His Name Is Mudd

[L Verge]

This time, I am not picking on Dr. Samuel A. Mudd! In the process of trying to find some information for descendants of the doctor via his sister, I ran into a very good comment on the old comment, "his name is mud." Many of our visitors still associate that phrase with our not-so-innocent Dr. Sam, and we try to explain that the term goes back centuries before. Here's a good explanation of its history:

... it’s little wonder that people might still connect the common “his name is mud” expression with the doctor. Even in the 2007 film “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” actor Nicolas Cage as the lead character, Ben Gates, promotes this misconception. But as it turns out, the phrase already was in print in 1823 — a decade before Samuel Mudd even was born — as people continued to expand on the literal meaning of mud as a mix of water and earthy matter.

As early as the 1500s, the word was used to describe things that were worthless or polluting. By 1703, “Hell Upon Earth,” an account of London’s lowlife, defined mud as “a fool or thick-skulled fellow.” Hence, in 1823, John Badcock in “Slang — A Dictionary of the Turf” wrote: “Mud — a stupid, twaddling fellow. ‘And his name is mud!’ ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration.” Similarly, to “throw mud” (make questionable accusations) dates to 1762 while mud became a synonym for opium as early as 1922 and for coffee in 1925.

I would also throw in the term, "ugly as a mud fence," which was another very derogatory term dating back to times when the lower classes could not afford standard fencing and resorted to the earth to form their boundaries.