moth

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English motthe, also moththe and mothe,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English moþþe, in the north mohþe.^[5][6][7][8] It is a common Germanic word,^[5] cognate with Middle Dutch motte, Middle Low German motte, Dutch mot, German Motte, Old Norse motti and Swedish mott.^[6][9][8] Its further origin is uncertain.^[6] The OED thinks it probably related, in a way not yet explained, to the base of Old English maþa (“grub, worm, maggot”), the source of maggot; a link with midge has also been suggested.^[6][5][3][9] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-West Germanic *moþþā and an alternating Proto-Germanic *maþô ~ *muttaz (“insect, worm, maggot”),^[1] and Kroonen likewise derives both the maggot word and the moth word from one ablauting noun.^[10] Orel instead calls *muþþōn an expressive formation.^[11] Barnhart notes that the Old English forms with h do not match the other forms, which may mean that more than one original word was involved.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small insect, or its larva, that eats cloth: in the Lindisfarne Gospels, about 950, in Matthew 6:20.^[6][3][5] An Old English riddle uses it more widely for any destructive pest, such as a worm or maggot.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old English times a moth was any parasitic pest, such as a maggot or worm, and especially the larva of the clothes moth.^[12][6] Until the 16th century the word was used mostly of the larva, as the enemy of woollen cloth, as in the Bible passage.^[5][13] It then spread to the adult clothes moth and to similar insects.^[12] From 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne, it covered the whole group of insects that, with the butterflies, makes up the Lepidoptera.^[6] Middle English had other words for the adult insect, such as flindre, which Etymonline compares with Dutch vlinder (“butterfly”).^[5] The general sense of any harmful pest lasted until the early 19th century.^[6][14] Figurative uses followed the insect's habits: from 1577 a moth was something that slowly eats away wealth or happiness; from 1600, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, it was also an insignificant person, or one drawn to destruction like a moth to a flame.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as a small winged insect that eats cloth and hangings.^[15] In slang moth was a prostitute from 1865;^[16][6] moth-eaten dates from the late 14th century^[5] and mothball from 1906, in O. Henry.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 950 – mohþe, the clothes moth or its larva, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[3][6]
• Old English – any destructive pest, such as a maggot or worm (obsolete by 1826).^[6]
• c. 1225 – Middle English moththe.^[3]
• late 14th century – moth-eaten.^[5]
• 1577 – something that slowly wastes wealth or happiness.^[6]
• 1600 – a person drawn to temptation like a moth to a flame.^[6]
• 1646 – any insect of the group to which the clothes moths belong.^[6]
• 1865 – slang, a prostitute.^[16]
• 1906 – mothball.^[3]
• 1908 – verb, to hunt for moths.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of a great many insects of the order Lepidoptera, related to the butterflies but usually flying at night, with stouter bodies and antennae that are not clubbed.^[4][17][14]
2. A clothes moth, whose larvae feed on wool, fur and other fabrics: Moths had got into the winter coats.^[4][14][6]
3. Something that slowly eats away wealth or happiness.^[6]
4. (slang, now rare) A prostitute.^[16][6]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1826) Any destructive pest, such as a maggot or worm.^[6][14]

Verb

1. To hunt for moths; usually in the form mothing.^[14][6][8]

Word family

• mothlike
• mothy
• mothball
• moth-eaten

Related words

• maggot
• midge
• butterfly

Usage notes

The moth of moth bean, a drought-resistant bean grown in India, is a borrowing from Hindi (1840), ultimately from Sanskrit, and unrelated to the insect.^[6][8] In South Africa MOTH is an acronym for the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, an ex-servicemen's organization founded in Durban in 1927.^[6] In Scotland and northern England moth-hawk was the nightjar.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ 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)