maggot

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English magot, also magat and maked,^[2][3] probably an alteration from Middle English of maddok, earthworm, maggot,^[4][5][6][7] either by metathesis,^[4][8] or under the influence of Magot, Maggot, old pet forms of the names Margery and Margaret.^{[4][9][10][11]} The Shorter Oxford and Hoad suggest an Anglo-Norman alteration,^[12][7] and maddok itself is recorded in Anglo-Norman as madoc, a kind of worm, from about 1240.^[4] Barnhart also connects it with earlier mathek, maggot (about 1225).^[3] Maddok is formed from the Germanic base of mathe with a diminutive suffix, like Middle Low German mēdeke and Old Norse maðkr; the OED leaves open whether the Middle English word is a loan from early Scandinavian, a native word unrecorded in Old English, or a diminutive formed in Old or Middle English.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com take it as Scandinavian.^[13][14] The base is Old English maþa (“maggot, grub, worm”),^[5][15][7] from Proto-Germanic *maþô,^[1] the source of Old Saxon matho, Old High German mado (modern Made), Dutch made and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌰 (maþa, “worm”);^{[5][15][16][7]} Orel and Hoad call it of unknown origin.^[16][7] The OED rejects a derivation from Welsh macai (“maggot, grub”) or mwcai (“glow-worm”) as unlikely, since these are recorded late and medieval loans from Welsh are few.^[4] Johnson had compared Welsh and Latin words.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A maggot or worm in flesh: probably before 1475, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses magat with maþ and Latin tarmus and cimex.^[2][4] The Middle English Dictionary also gives the sense "bedbug".^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The maggot was long thought to be bred by decay.^[4][5] From 1618 the word was used figuratively of parasitic people and harmful influences,^[4] and slang used it for a contemptible person from the late 17th century.^[18] The sense "whim, odd fancy" is first recorded about 1625, in John Fletcher;^[4][5] Etymonline and Weekley explain it by the notion of a maggot in the brain, from the old belief that internal parasites caused disturbances of the mind.^[5][8] The idea was still alive in 1806, when a reviewer said Charlotte Dacre must be "afflicted with the dismal malady of maggots in the brain".^[9] From the whim sense came "a whimsical person" (1681–1725) and the names of dance tunes (from 1682), later of other musical pieces;^[4] maggotry, folly, is recorded from 1706.^[5] The OED marks the whim sense as now archaic and regional.^[4] In archaeology maggot or maggot ornament has been used since 1925 for a pottery pattern made by pressing a short piece of twisted cord into the clay,^[4] and in Irish English to act the maggot is to act the fool, from 1946.^[4]

Timeline

• probably before 1475 – the larva of a fly; a worm in flesh.^[4][2][3]
• 1618 – figuratively, of parasitic people or harmful influences.^[4]
• before 1625 – a whimsical or odd notion.^[4] Etymonline dates this to the 1620s.^[5]
• 1681 – a whimsical or capricious person (obsolete by 1725).^[4]
• 1682 – in the names of dance tunes.^[4]
• c. 1698 – a contemptible person.^[18]
• 1925 – in archaeology, a cord-impressed pattern on pottery.^[4]
• 1946 – Irish English act the maggot, to behave foolishly.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The soft, legless larva of a fly, especially of the housefly or blowfly, usually found in decaying matter: The bin was crawling with maggots after the heatwave.^[19][13][4]
2. A contemptible or parasitic person.^[18][4]
3. (archaic) A whim or odd fancy.^[19][4][12]
4. (Irish English) act the maggot: to fool about or behave foolishly.^[4]

Word family

• maggoty
• rat-tailed maggot
• apple maggot
• maggotry

Related words

• mawkish
• mathe
• maddock
• magpie

Usage notes

In English regional dialect maggot is also a magpie: this is a short form of maggotpie, from the pet name Magot,^[13][4] recorded from 1791, and the Wright dialect dictionary finds it in Ireland and in English counties from Lincolnshire to Somerset and Devon.^[4][20] The same pet name was applied to a sow in 1608.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
16. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)