mold

Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline give separate entries to mold meaning a shape for casting, mold meaning a fungus, and mold meaning loose earth, with different origins.^[1][2][3] Mold is the American spelling;^[4][5] British English writes mould.^[4][5]

Pronunciation

• UK: /məʊld/^[6]
• US: /moʊld/^[6]

mold¹ shape, cast

Etymology

This word is inherited from Middle English molde,^[1][7] borrowed from Old French modle (“model, plan, copy; way, manner”) with transposed consonants,^[3][8][9] also found as molle (modern moule),^[2][1] from Latin modulus (“measure, model”),^[3][7][2] a diminutive of modus (“measure, manner”),^[3][7] from the root Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[3][7] Barnhart notes that it is a doublet of module.^[2] The verb was formed from the noun in Middle English.^[1][2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fashion, form, nature, character: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, according to Barnhart;^[2] Etymonline dates this figurative sense to c1200,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1175–1225, and Merriam-Webster gives the 13th century for "distinctive nature or character".^[5][1]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, a pattern on which something is made or a form into which molten metal is poured, followed by about 1300, in Sir Tristrem,^[2][3] and the Shorter Oxford records a mason's template from Middle English.^[9] The phrase break the mold, so that no other like it can be made, was used figuratively from the 1560s,^[3] and moulds for jellies and other food are recorded from the 1570s.^[3] The verb meant at first to mix or knead, especially dough (about 1350),^[2][3] and then to shape bread or form something into a particular shape (late 14th century);^[3][9] the figurative sense, of forming a person's character, dates from about 1600.^[3] The noun molding (1327) at first meant kneading, and only from 1643 an ornamental strip in architecture.^[2] In Suffolk to be all of a mould was to have a strong family likeness, and in Scots a mould was the bone disc of a cloth-covered button.^[10]

Timeline

• c1200 – form, nature, character.^[3][2]
• c1300 – a form for casting molten metal.^[3][2]
• about 1350 – verb, to knead or mix.^[2][3]
• 1560s – break the mold.^[3]
• 1570s – a mould for jellies and other food.^[3]
• c1600 – verb, to shape a person's character.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A hollow container into which a liquid or soft material, such as molten metal, plastic or jelly, is poured so that it sets in that shape.
2. Something made or shaped in such a container.
3. A frame or template on or around which something is built.
4. Distinctive nature or character; a kind or type: a politician of the old mold.

Verb

1. To make or shape something in a mold, or to give it a particular form: She molded the clay into a small bowl.
2. To shape or influence the character or development of someone or something.
3. (archaic) To knead dough.

Word family

• molding
• moldable
• remold

mold² fungus

Etymology

This word is probably from Middle English moulde, the past participle of moulen (“to grow moldy”),^{[3][2][9][11]} a verb of Scandinavian origin related to mygla (“to grow moldy”),^[12][3][8] with mögla and mugle.^[2][8] Barnhart thinks the verb may be related to mugga (“drizzle”) (see muggy),^[2] and Etymonline suggests a Germanic base meaning wetness or slipperiness, from the root of mucus.^[3] Merriam-Webster takes it as an alteration of mowle influenced by the earth word molde,^[1] and Etymonline and Klein also allow some influence from that word.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A furry growth of fungus on decaying matter: before 1400, in Cursor Mundi, according to Barnhart;^[2] Etymonline dates it to c1400,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.^[1] The verb moulen, to grow mouldy, is older: the Middle English Dictionary quotes it from the Ancrene Riwle (c1230).^[12][2]

Semantic evolution

The modern verb to mold, formed from the noun, is recorded probably before 1500 in the sense of allowing something to go mouldy, and since the mid-16th century in the sense of becoming mouldy,^[2][9] the use Merriam-Webster dates to 1530;^[1] it took over from the older moulen.^[2] The adjective moldy is recorded from 1570, replacing mowly (before 1398).^[2] Spenser's use of the verb for a person rotting in idleness is now obsolete.^[1] In Scots, Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect mould was also an adjective meaning mouldy.^[10]

Timeline

• c1230 – moulen, to grow mouldy.^[12]
• before 1398 – mowly, mouldy.^[2]
• before 1400 – a growth of fungus.^[2]
• before 1500 – verb, to let become mouldy.^[2]
• 1530 – verb, to become mouldy.^[1]
• 1570 – moldy.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi that forms on food, damp walls and other organic matter.
2. A fungus that produces such a growth.

Verb

1. To become covered with mold: The cheese had molded at the edges.

Word family

• moldy

mold³ soil

Etymology

This word is inherited from Middle English molde, inherited from Old English molde (“earth, dust, sand, soil; land, world”),^{[3][1][13][14]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *muldō,^[2][15][16] with molde, moude, molta (“dust, earth”), mold (“earth”) and 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (mulda, “dust”).^{[2][3][8][14]} Orel and Klein explain it as an old participle, "that which is ground", from the root Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind”),^[16][8] so that it is related to meal, ground grain.^[2][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loose earth, dust or soil: Old English, before 725.^[2][15] Bosworth-Toller's examples include the dust of a holy place carried away for healing in Bede.^[13]

Semantic evolution

From late Old English the word was used for the earth of the grave,^[3][15] and since about 1300 also for the earth or dust out of which God made man and to which the body returns.^[3] The sense "soil rich in humus, garden soil" is recorded from the 14th century,^[15] and survives in leaf mold.^[1] The mold for the surface of the earth, or the grave, lingered in literary and dialect use,^[1] and Scottish and northern English dialects used the moulds for the grave.^[10] The moldboard of a plough, which turns the earth, is recorded from 1508.^[2] The verb, to cover the roots of plants with soil, is recorded from the early 17th century and is now chiefly American and dialect.^[9][1] Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary (1897) that mold is the proper spelling, like gold, although mould was still preferred in Britain.^[3]

Timeline

• before 725 – loose earth, dust, soil.^[2]
• late Old English – the earth of the grave.^[3]
• c1300 – the earth from which man was made.^[3]
• 14th century – soil rich in humus.^[15]
• 1508 – moldboard.^[2]
• early 17th century – verb, to earth up plants.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Loose, soft soil that is rich in humus, suited to growing plants.
2. (archaic, dialect) The ground; the earth of the grave.

Verb

1. (chiefly US and dialect) To cover the roots of plants with soil; to earth up.

Word family

• moldboard
• leaf mold
• molder

Related words

• model
• module
• mode
• meal
• mull
• muggy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
2. ^ 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 29 30 31 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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 29 30 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c 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)
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c 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)
13. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
14. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
15. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill