Mrs Grundy

Mrs Grundy is a figurative name for an extremely conventional or priggish person, a personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety. A tendency to be overly fearful of what others might think is sometimes referred to as grundyism.

Mrs Grundy originated as an unseen character in Thomas Morton's 1798 five-act comedy Speed the Plough. The figure of Mrs Grundy became well established in culture: as early as 1813 The Examiner referenced her (with a specific nod to Speed the Plough), and in Samuel Butler's 1872 novel Erewhon, the goddess Ydgrun (her name an anagram of "Grundy"), dictates social norms. References to "Mrs Grundy" as a personification of propriety, as well as to "Grundyism", "Grundyists" and "Grundyites", can be found throughout the English-speaking world and beyond.