Etymologically
Log in

moth

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

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

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)