Re: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mumpteen.html
For those of us atrophied by sitting in front of the computer way too much, the Oxford English Dictionary is way to heavy. So what is the origin of the word umpire?
The word is basically the same as non-peer, having had various spellings in English and French, such as nonper, nompere, etc. The loss of the initial n is due to a misdivision of a numpire (or similar) as an umpire. The same sort of misdivision has caused a nadder and a napron (or similar spellings) to become an adder and an apron.
nifty! namasti! nice nodose knowledge.