In oldpaul's email that I quoted, he suggested
muumuu should be treated as rare.
It may be that he was thinking of the fact that it's sometimes hyphenated, as
muu-muu or written as two words (or should that be one word twice?):
muu muu. If these three variant forms were used to a similar extent, that could be a reason for classing
muumuu as rare, since some players who know the term might not realise it can be written as a single word. However, it looks to me as if the single word is used far more frequently than either of the other forms.
(The word can also be written
mumu, accepted in Chi as a rare word.)
Still, is the word, however written, really common? It seems to be used fairly often in news articles, without any explanation of what a
muumuu is. For example, an article last month in the
New York Magazine offshoot
The Strategist:
"If there was ever a fitting time to embrace the housedress, this housebound moment is it," writes Alexandra Ilyashov in her quest to find the best housedress. She asked a dozen stylish women — including writers, stylists, and one former costume designer — about the caftans, muumuus, and all other manner of housedresses they wear.
The word is freely used in British publications too. In March this year,
The Spectator wrote about Hollywood mogul Jack Warner:
His second marriage was to a monster called Ann, last glimpsed in a muumuu, demanding that her chauffeur stop so that she could gorge herself at a welfare restaurant on chicken wings, much to his humiliation...
I feel things should stay as they are, with
muumuu treated as common.