OUTOFPAPUA database: Lexicons of the West Papuan language area

Entry record from Schapper (2020): Wersing Peitoko

mumul[muˈmul]

•  n. steel; hard like steel.baja; keras sebagai baja.

Pede ba mumula.The machete is (of) steel., Parang itu baja.

Etymology: Likely originally from a Central Maluku language, e.g., Waru |fn{mumumur}, Masarete |fn{momol} ‘iron’, from where iron was traded. Nearby languages with the same borrowing lack final /l/ and are unlikely intermediaries, cf. Hresuk |fn{mumu}, Erai |fn{mumu} 'iron'.