The word "mummer" is sometimes explained to derive from Middle English "mum" ("silent") or Greek "mommo" ("mask"), but is more likely to be associated with Early New High German "mummer" ("disguised person", attested in Johann Fischart) and "vermummen" ("to wrap up, to disguise, to mask one's face"), which itself is derived from or came to be associated with "mummen" (first attested already in Middle High German by a prohibition in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, 1351) and "mum(en)schanz", (Hans Sachs, Nuremberg, 16th century), these latter words originally referring to a game or throw ("schanz") of dice.