#12: Mumpsimus

Definition:

a bigoted adherent to exposed but customary error

Examples:

"A tough carrion, she draws like a Whirl-pool, and would kill a Man as easily as a Cat sucks the breath of a Child: Go thy ways old Mumpsimus, the mark's in thy mouth still." – Thomas Duffett, Psyche Debauch'd, 1678

About the Word:

The ostensible origin of mumpsimus is that long ago there was an illiterate priest who was in the habit of using this word when saying mass, rather than the correct Latin word sumpsimus (which means "we have taken"). When confronted with this error, the priest was reported to have said that he refused to change his old mumpsimus for the new sumpsimus offered by his critic.