mordant

Etymology

It is first inherited from Middle English mordaunt, also mourdaunt, the name of a clasp,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mordant, also mordaunt (“tongue of a buckle”), and the same word in Middle French, where it meant the metal part of a belt.^[3][4] The adjective, which Caxton wrote mordent after the Latin participle, is borrowed from Middle French mordant (“biting, caustic”).^[3][5][6][7] The noun for a substance that fixes dye is borrowed from French mordant, recorded in that sense in French from 1788, probably after Italian mordente.^[3][5][6] All are uses of the present participle of mordre (“to bite”),^[3][4][8][9] which goes back through Vulgar Latin *mordere^[5][8][10] to Latin mordeō (“to bite, sting”).^{[3][4][5][11]} The OED thinks the Latin verb is probably cognate with a Sanskrit root meaning to press or crush, and perhaps with smart.^[3] Klein and Barnhart also compare Ancient Greek σμερδνός (smerdnós, “terrible, fearful”), Old English smeortan (“to hurt”) and Old High German smerzan (“to pain”), and reconstruct Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd-,^[10][5] which Klein derives from *mer- (“to rub away, harm”),^[10] as Etymonline does more tentatively.^[4] The Latin verb is also behind morsel and remorse.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ornamental hooked clasp on a girdle or belt: about 1400, in Femina, "Passeþ þoru þe mordaunt".^[2][3] Etymonline dates this noun to the mid-14th century.^[4] The adjective "biting, caustic" follows in 1474, in Caxton's translation of the Game and Playe of the Chesse.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The clasp was out of use by about 1500,^[3] and the word lived on in the figurative adjective, used of a person, his wit or a remark.^[3][4] In the 16th and 17th centuries the adjective also had more physical senses: smarting or keen (1591), corrosive (1601, in Holland's Pliny) and given to biting (1611, in Florio).^[3] The dyers' noun is a separate later borrowing from French, recorded in English from 1791 in a translation of Berthollet,^[3][5] and Coleridge used it figuratively in 1815–16.^[3] The word then spread to other crafts and sciences: to the adhesive for gold leaf (1825), the acid used in etching (1878) and the substance that fixes a microscopic stain (1881).^[3] The verb is a conversion of the noun, recorded from 1836 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged^[6] but only from 1839 in the OED.^[3] In 1902 the adjective was applied to the dye itself.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – noun, a hooked clasp on a belt (obsolete by about 1500).^[3][2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century.^[4]
• 1474 – adjective, biting and caustic, of wit or speech, as mordent.^[3][5]
• 1591 – sharp, keen, smarting (obsolete by 1876).^[3]
• 1601 – corrosive.^[3]
• 1611 – given to biting (obsolete by 1895).^[3]
• 1791 – noun, a substance that fixes a dye in a fibre.^[3][5][6][4]
• 1825 – noun, an adhesive for gold leaf; adjective, acting as a mordant.^[3]
• 1836 – verb, to treat with a mordant.^[6] The OED's first record is from 1839.^[3]
• 1878 – noun, a corrosive liquid for etching.^[3]
• 1881 – noun, a substance that fixes a microscopic stain.^[3]
• 1902 – adjective, of a dye fixed by means of a mordant.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sharply critical; biting, sarcastic or caustic: her mordant review of the opera.^{[13][6][11][3]}
2. Acting as a mordant; serving to fix colours in dyeing.^[13][6][11]
3. Burning or pungent.^[13][6]
4. (rare) Corrosive.^[9][3]
5. (obsolete, 1611–1895) Given to biting.^[3][6]

Noun

1. A chemical that fixes a dye in a fibre or other material by combining with it.^{[13][6][11][3]}
2. A corrosive liquid used to etch lines on a printing plate.^[13][6][3]
3. A sticky compound for fixing gold leaf.^[6][3]
4. A substance that makes a microscopic stain bind to a specimen.^[3][6]
5. (obsolete, c. 1400–1500) An ornamental hooked clasp on a belt or girdle.^[3][9][2]

Verb

1. To treat with a mordant: They mordanted the wool before dyeing it.^[13][6][3]

Word family

• mordancy
• mordantly

Related words

• morsel
• remorse
• mordent
• mordacious
• smart

References

1. ^ a b 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 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 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins