English

Phrase

much of a muchness

1. (idiomatic) Of two or more things, having little difference of any significance between them.
   • 1819, The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc, page 683:

     As to any existing dearth of materials for comedy, I hold it to be merely imaginary; for I believe that on a fair comparison, the manners and morals of the present age and those of the past, would prove much of a muchness.

   • 1850, James Fenimore Cooper, The Ways of the Hour, 2010, facsimile edition: Precaution / The Ways of the Hour, page 30:

     “He was not,” answered a juror. “Old Peter Goodwin could not have been more than five feet five, and Dorothy was all of that, I should think. When they came to meeting together, they looked much of a muchness.”

   • 1926 October 2, Henry Ford, W. J. Cameron (editors), Chats with Office Callers, Dearborn Independent Magazine October 1925-December 1926, page 28:

     In fact, he said, in spite of all efforts to lift the popular taste, things were much of a muchness with the old days when in popular novels the villain, had to be foiled, the hero had to triumph and the lovers had to be united.

   • 1987 March 30, John Simon, Theater: Railway Disaster, New York, page 97:

     The songs are much of a muchness (or littleness), all sounding forgettably alike.

   • 2000, Patrick Whitefield, How To Make A Forest Garden, Permanent Publications, UK, page 13:

     There are small trees and large shrubs which are much of a muchness, and it may not be possible to say whether an individual plant is a tall member of the shrub layer or a short tree.

   • 2000, Steve Bruce, Sociology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, page 80:

     There were many legislative and political battles to be fought before the fundamental idea that all people were much of a muchness was translated into a culture of equal rights for all, but gradually rights were extended from landowners, to rich men, to not so rich men, to all men, and then to women.

Translations

See also

• distinction without a difference
• same difference
• six of one, half a dozen of the other