mummery

plural mummeries

1. archaiccountableliterallyuncountableMumming; disguising oneself to perform as a mummer, or to take part in some other festivities or performance.First known use 15th c.

   I say the sewer thought I was dressed to bear a part in the tregetour’s mummery, and so I got admission

   1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableA ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, formerly especially of a religious nature; extravagant or hypocritical performance.First known use 16th c.

   Why, you unweaned cub, he believes in that mummery a good deal less than I do, and I don't believe in it at all.

   1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation

   4 more examples

   The twentieth of September, they are bound Fast from the midnight watch to pray till morn.— More would he not disclose, or knew not more. —What precious mummery!

   1781, Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother, Act 1 Scene 1

   All this affectation and mummery was in due time overcome, and Zeluco's nuptials with the widow were celebrated in form.

   1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 41

   Because it is more simple, and, in its simplicity, becomes sublime to a mind like her's—in my days of darkness I did not like the ceremonies of the church, but classed them with silly mummeries, hardening my heart against that which I did not understand—now you would have no such feelings to contend with...

   1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 83

   I have no illusions, however. My judges will regard all this as a piece of mummery on the part of a madman with a gross liking for the fruit vert.

   1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 10, in Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC