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mop

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Pronunciation

mop1 cleaning implement

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

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