Origin of Phrases - M
Name will be Mudd
Meaning: Reputation will be ruined.
Example: If word gets out that you are a peeping tom, your name will be mudd.
Origin: A reference to Dr. Mudd, the Physician that set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth. Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln by shooting him in the balcony of the Ford Theater. After the shooting, Booth leapt from the balcony, breaking his leg. Dr. Mudd claimed that he had no idea Booth had just shot President Lincoln, however the government sent him away to prison anyway off the coast of Key West.
Alternatively,
The Oxford English Dictionary, dates the first written example in 1823, That would be four decades before Lincoln was assassinated. The pharase is meant to appear to mean–that your name is (or will be) dirty as mud if you do such-and-such.
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