mole

mole¹ skin spot

Etymology

The skin spot is inherited from Middle English mole, also mool,^[3][5] inherited from Old English māl (“spot, mark, blemish”),^[6][7][8][9] from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, mark”),^[6][7][2] the source also of Old High German meil (modern Mal), Middle Low German mēl and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻 (mail, “wrinkle”).^{[8][6][7][10]} The OED calls its further origin uncertain.^[8] Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein trace it to Proto-Indo-European *mai- (“to stain, defile”), the root also of the Greek verb behind miasma,^[6][7][10] and Ayto relates it to malen (“to paint”), the source of maulstick.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A discoloured spot, especially on cloth or linen: in early Old English glossaries, the Cleopatra Glossary in the OED,^[8][6] and Ælfric's Glossary, about 1000, in Barnhart.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the spot moved from cloth to the skin: Barnhart records moyle, a stain, in 1373, and a spot on the skin before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus;^[7][8] Etymonline dates the sense of a small dark mark on human skin to the late 14th century.^[6] Ayto notes that the specific sense of a brown mark arose only fairly recently.^[2] Piers Plowman speaks of a coat with many moles and spottes,^[11] and the old sense survived in iron-mole, a rust stain, now iron mould.^[11][8] From 1644 the word was also used figuratively for a fault or blemish.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave it as "a natural spot or discolouration of the body".^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English māl, a spot or mark, especially on cloth.^[7][8]
• 1373 – moyle, a stain.^[7]
• before 1398 – a spot on the skin.^[7][8]
• c. 1400 – verb, to spot or stain.^[8]
• 1644 – figuratively, a blemish or fault.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small spot on the skin, often dark and sometimes raised, present from birth or appearing early in life; a pigmented nevus.^[3][8][9]
2. (archaic) A discoloured spot on cloth; a stain.^[3][8]
3. (figurative) A blemish or fault; a distinguishing mark.^[8][3]

Verb

1. (archaic) To stain or spot.^[3][8]

mole² burrowing animal; spy

Etymology

The animal is inherited from Middle English molle, also mol and molde.^[7][13][6] The word is not recorded in Old English, which called the animal wand.^[8][1] The OED leaves open whether it is native or borrowed from a related language: it matches Old Frisian moll, Middle Dutch mol and Middle Low German mol, also mul,^[8][7][3] and the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Ayto take it from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German,^[9][14][2] while the MED takes it as probably an unrecorded Old English word.^[13][6] Its further origin is uncertain.^[8][2] It may be a shortening of moldwarp, "earth-thrower", though Etymonline finds such a shortening rare at that date;^{[6][11][2][15]} Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to molde (“earth, soil”), the source of mold.^[7][3][5] The OED also mentions a possible link with the Germanic word for a newt or salamander, German Molch.^[8] Forms with d may show the influence of moldwarp.^[8][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The burrowing animal: Barnhart records mol in 1362,^[7] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century,^[6] and the OED's first quotation is from about 1400.^[8] The OED finds it earlier in surnames (Simonem Molekin in 1225 and Willielmus Molehunte in 1275) and probably in the Sussex place name Molecomb (1284).^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

Moles were proverbial for their blindness from 1563,^[8] and in the 17th century a mole was also a short-sighted or dull person.^[8] From about 1600 the word was used for someone who works in darkness or in secret,^[6][8] a use Ayto traces to the 17th century.^[2] The sense of a secret agent who works his way into a position of trust within an organization is first quoted in the OED from 1922;^[8] Etymonline says it was suggested in the early 20th century and popularized in 1974 by John le Carré,^[6] whose novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy made it current; the world of espionage seems to have taken the word from le Carré, not the other way round.^[1][2][7] Other uses followed the animal's digging: the pointed shoe of a mole plough (1805) and a tunnelling machine (1960),^[8] and the verb, to burrow, from 1856.^[8][9] In Australia and New Zealand moles are moleskin trousers.^[8][16]

Timeline

• 1362 – mol, the animal.^[7]
• 1563 – used of the proverbial blindness of moles.^[8]
• 1601 – a person who works underground or in secret.^[8]
• 1805 – the pointed shoe of a mole plough.^[8]
• 1856 – verb, to burrow like a mole.^[8]
• 1879 – plural, moleskin trousers (Australian and New Zealand).^[8]
• 1922 – a spy planted in an organization.^[8]
• 1960 – a tunnelling machine.^[8]
• 1974 – the spy sense popularized by John le Carré.^[6][1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various small burrowing mammals of the family Talpidae, with velvety dark fur, tiny eyes and broad front feet for digging.^[3][17][8]
2. A spy who gains a trusted place in an organization, especially an intelligence service, over a long period; also anyone who leaks secrets from inside.^[17][8][18]
3. A person who works underground or in secret.^[8][3]
4. A machine for boring tunnels.^[8][9]
5. (Australia and New Zealand, informal) In the plural, trousers of moleskin.^[8][16]

Verb

1. To burrow or make a tunnel, as a mole does; figuratively, to dig something out: The reporter moled out the names of the donors.^[3][8][9]

Word family

• molehill
• moleskin
• mole cricket
• marsupial mole

mole³ pier, breakwater

Etymology

The pier is borrowed from Middle French mole,^[8][7][6][3] in this sense probably from Italian molo,^[8][3][5] from Byzantine Greek μῶλος (mōlos),^{[8][3][10][2]} from Latin mōlēs (“mass, massive structure, barrier”).^[8][6][7][2] The obsolete sense "mass" came directly from the Latin word.^[9][8] The OED and Barnhart relate the Latin noun to Ancient Greek μῶλος (mōlos, “toil, struggle”) and perhaps μόλις (mólis, “hardly, scarcely”);^[8][7][6] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *mō- (“to exert oneself”), also the source of German mühen (“to take pains”) and müde (“tired”).^[6][7] The diminutive of the Latin noun gave molecule, and the noun is related to demolish.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A great mass or large piece: about 1390, a sense now obsolete.^[8][9] The sense of a pier or breakwater is first recorded in 1545, in the Acts of the Privy Council, in letters to Boloyne for the making of a jettye or mole;^[8][11] Barnhart dates it before 1548 and Etymonline to the 1540s.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with two meanings: "a mass", taken from Latin and used until the 19th century, and "a stone breakwater", from the French harbour word.^[9][8] The OED notes that the French word in the harbour sense goes back through Italian to Byzantine Greek, as its gender shows, rather than directly to Latin.^[8] The sense was extended to the water enclosed by such a structure.^[8][3] From 1700 to 1842 a mole was also a round Roman mausoleum.^[8][3]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – a great mass, a large piece (obsolete by 1893).^[8]
• 1545 – a massive stone pier or breakwater.^[8]
• 1700 – a round Roman mausoleum (obsolete by 1842).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A massive structure of stone or earth built out into the sea as a pier or breakwater; also the harbour it encloses.^[3][8][9]
2. (obsolete, c. 1390–1893) A great mass; bulk.^[8][3][9]

mole⁴ uterine mass

Etymology

The uterine mass is borrowed from Middle French môle, recorded in 1372, or a borrowing directly from its source,^{[8][5][19][18]} Latin mola (“millstone; false conception”).^{[8][3][5][17]} Merriam-Webster explains the Latin medical sense as a translation of the Greek word for a millstone,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary relates mola to Proto-Indo-European *melə-, the root of mill.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An abnormal mass in the womb: first quoted by the OED from a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of about 1425.^[8] The Shorter Oxford also dates it to late Middle English,^[9] while Dictionary.com dates the word to 1605–15.^[20]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) put this sense first, as a "false conception", a fleshy mass that grows in the womb.^[12] The OED now defines it as a mass formed when the fetus dies and degenerates early in pregnancy, or by abnormal growth of tissue, as in a hydatidiform mole.^[8][3]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – an abnormal mass in the womb.^[8]
• 1755 – in Johnson, a "false conception".^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) An abnormal mass in the uterus, formed when an embryo dies and degenerates early in pregnancy, or by abnormal growth of tissue, as in a hydatidiform mole.^[3][8][9]

mole⁵ Mexican sauce

Etymology

The sauce is borrowed from Spanish mole, a Mexican Spanish word recorded from 1577,^[8][3][5] from Classical Nahuatl mōlli (“sauce, stew”).^{[8][3][5][17]} The Nahuatl word is also the second part of guacamole.^[5][20][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spicy Mexican sauce: 1882, in the Daily Evening Bulletin of San Francisco.^[8][3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1925–30 and the Shorter Oxford to the mid-20th century.^[20][9]

Semantic evolution

The word is used for the sauce and also for a dish of meat, especially poultry, cooked in it.^[8]

Timeline

• 1882 – a spicy Mexican sauce.^[8][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rich, highly spiced Mexican sauce made mainly from chilies and chocolate, served with meat, especially turkey or chicken; also a dish made with it.^[3][8][9]

mole⁶ unit of chemistry

Etymology

The chemical unit is borrowed from German Mol,^[8][6][7][3] a shortening of Molekül (“molecule”),^{[8][6][7][10][9]} or, according to Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary, of Molekulargewicht (“molecular weight”).^[3][5] The German noun goes back through French molécule to New Latin mōlēcula, a diminutive of Latin mōlēs (“mass”).^[7][2][15] Etymonline and Klein credit the German word to the chemist Wilhelm Ostwald;^[6][10] the OED cites it from his “Hand- und Hilfsbuch” of 1893 and compares French mol (1900),^[8] while Etymonline says Ostwald coined it in 1900.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A unit of quantity of a chemical substance: 1902, in Findlay's translation of Ostwald's Principles of Inorganic Chemistry.^[8][7][6]

Semantic evolution

The unit was first defined from the mass and molecular or atomic weight of a substance, and is now one of the base units of the International System of Units.^[8][9] It is also written mol.^[3][9][7]

Timeline

• 1893 – German Mol, in Ostwald.^[8]
• 1902 – the English word.^[8][7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) A unit of the quantity of a substance, originally the amount whose mass in grams equals its molecular weight; now one of the base units of the International System of Units.^[3][9][8] Also written mol.^[3][9]

Word family

• molal
• micromole
• nanomole
• picomole
• mole fraction