earthworm

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ertheworm,^[2][3] formed from Middle English erthe + worm,^[2] the forerunners of earth and worm.^[4][5] Compare Middle Low German ērtworm and Middle High German ertwurm, the latter continued by German Erdwurm.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A worm that burrows in the soil: before 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie.^[4] Etymonline has it from about 1400, as erþe-worme,^[5] Dictionary.com from 1400–50,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged from the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old English had other names for the animal: eorðmata, and regnwyrm, literally "rain worm".^[5][6] It also had angeltwicce, the worm used as bait in angling,^[6][5] which lived on in Middle English and was used in medicine: a recipe of about 1450 prescribes fried angylltwacches for jaundice.^[5] The figurative use for a low or contemptible person dates from 1583, in Golding's translation of Calvin's sermons on Deuteronomy.^[4][7] The Middle Low German and Middle High German words were also used figuratively.^[4] Johnson (1755) gives it as his second sense, "a mean sordid wretch", quoting Norris: "Thy vain contempt, dull earthworm, cease".^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged now labels this use archaic.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1400 – a worm that burrows in the soil.^[4]
• 1583 – figurative, a low or contemptible person.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various burrowing annelid worms of the class Oligochaeta, especially of the family Lumbricidae, which loosen and aerate the soil and feed on decaying matter.^{[2][9][10][4]}
2. (archaic) A low, mean or contemptible person.^[2][4][8]

Related words

• earth
• worm

Usage notes

American English has many regional names for the animal, which is widely used as fishing bait: angleworm and fishworm in the North, fishing worm in parts of the Midland and South, wiggler in the South, nightwalker in New England, nightcrawler chiefly in the North, North Midland and West, dew worm in the Inland North and Canada, and red worm in the North Central states, South Midland and South.^[3] Collins gives lumbricoid as the related adjective.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins