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Etymology and origin of the English word mop

Pronunciation

mop1 cleaning implement

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1496
From
Middle English mappe
Ultimate origin
Latin mappa

Etymology

The cleaning implement appears first as inherited from Middle English mappe,[2][3][4] probably a shortening of the earlier mappel (also mapolt and mappold), a mop for cleaning an oven or a boat,[5][2][6][7][8] which the MED compares with Medieval Latin mappula.[7] Merriam-Webster, Collins and the American Heritage Dictionary derive mappel from that Medieval Latin word, meaning a cloth or towel, a diminutive of Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”),[2][9][6] the source of map.[6][10] Etymonline, Barnhart, Klein and Weekley instead take mappe from Walloon mappe (“napkin”) or directly from Latin mappa;[4][3][11][12] the OED notes that Middle French mappe seems to have only the sense "napkin", and that West Flemish moppe (“ship's mop”) may be a borrowing from English.[5] Hoad calls the word of unknown origin,[8] and the Shorter Oxford calls it uncertain, perhaps connected with Latin mappa in the end.[13] Partridge suggested that the word came from the name “Mabel”, common among housemaids.[14] The form mop appears only in the 17th century, in 1665 according to Barnhart;[5][3][4] the OED suggests association with the older word mop, a rag doll (see moppet), or an independent sound change.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stick with a bundle of coarse yarn or cloth tied to it, used by sailors for cleaning a ship or for spreading pitch on its seams: 1496, in the naval accounts of Henry VII.[5][3][4][10]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a sailors' term, and Ayto describes it as an improvised brush for tarring a ship's seams.[10] Etymonline dates the general sense, a mop for cleaning floors or windows, to the 1610s,[4] and Johnson (1755) defined it as cloth or wool on a long handle "with which maids clean the floors".[15] From 1616 it was also used of a thick mass of hair or leaves resembling a mop's head.[5][4] From 1683 it also meant a dishcloth, a sense later only regional.[5] The verb, first in mop up (1709), was formed from the noun;[5][4][3][2] it was used for wiping a surface from 1755, of wiping one's face or brow from 1840,[5] and colloquially, with up, for finishing off an opponent or completing a task from 1859;[5] Weekley quotes moppers-up from a Victoria Cross citation of 1917.[12] The phrase to mop the floor with, to beat severely, is recorded from 1875.[5] A mop or mop fair, recorded from 1677, was an annual hiring fair for servants and farm labourers,[5][16] perhaps so called because maidservants seeking work carried a mop;[13][17][9] the EDD records it across the Midlands and the south, from Lincolnshire to Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight.[16] In dialect and slang, all mops and brooms meant bewildered, out of sorts, or half-drunk (from 1814).[5][16]

Timeline

  • 1496 – mappe, a ship's mop for cleaning or tarring.[5][3]
  • 1616 – a thick mass of hair or leaves.[5]
  • 1665 – the spelling mop.[3]
  • 1677 – a hiring fair, mop fair.[5]
  • 1709 – verb, mop up, to wipe up or absorb.[5][4][2]
  • 1755 – verb, to wipe or clean a surface.[5]
  • 1840 – verb, to wipe sweat or tears from the face.[5]
  • 1859 – mop up, to finish off an opponent or complete a task.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tool made of absorbent material, such as yarn, cloth or sponge, fixed to a long handle and used for cleaning floors: He left the mop in the bucket by the back door.[9][18][2]
  2. A thick, untidy mass of hair: a mop of red curls.[9][18][2][5]
  3. A smaller implement of the same kind, as for washing dishes or polishing.[2][5]
  4. (British, historical) An annual hiring fair for servants and farm workers; a mop fair.[5][13][9]

Verb

  1. To clean or wipe with a mop: She mopped the kitchen floor before the guests arrived.[9][18][2]
  2. To wipe or soak up, as liquid, sweat or tears: He mopped his forehead with a handkerchief.[9][2][5]
  3. mop up: to finish off, or to clear an area of remaining enemy troops.[9][2][5]

Word family

  • mopper
  • mop-up
  • mopboard
  • mophead
  • dishmop

mop2 grimace

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1567 Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''

Etymology

The grimace is of uncertain origin.[5] The OED thinks it perhaps imitates the movements of the lips, and compares Dutch moppen (“to mutter, mumble, sulk, pull a face”) and similar words in other Germanic languages;[5] Klein calls it probably imitative,[11] and Hoad compares the Dutch verb in the sense "to be surly, pout".[8] Merriam-Webster suggests it comes from the obsolete mop, a fool,[2] as did Weekley, who linked that word with German Mops (“fool, pug dog”), of Low German origin.[12] The OED takes the noun to be from the verb, although the noun may be recorded earlier.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a grimace, to make faces, chiefly in to mop and mow: 1567, in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.[5] The noun, a grimace like a monkey's, perhaps occurs before 1475, but the OED is not sure that this early quotation shows the same word.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word lived mainly in the alliterative pairs to mop and mow and mops and mows, of grimaces such as apes make;[5][13][12] Weekley notes Shakespeare's use in The Tempest and King Lear.[12] It is now archaic.[13][2] In northern English, Yorkshire, Sussex and Hampshire dialect the verb also meant to behave affectedly or to fidget about.[16]

Timeline

  • before 1475 – noun, a grimace (uncertain).[5]
  • 1567 – verb, to make faces, in to mop and mow.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic) To make a grimace; to make faces, usually in mop and mow.[2][13][5]

Noun

  1. (archaic) A grimace, usually in mops and mows.[2][13][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b 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)
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b c d 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)
  17. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Cite this entry

“Mop.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/mop. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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