muck

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English muk, also muc, mok,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old Norse myki (“dung”), with a rare variant mykr.^{[5][2][4][6][7][8]} Gersum notes that before Middle English the word occurs outside Scandinavian only once, as the second element of the late Old English place name Hlosmoc, and so it is usually derived from Old Norse;^[4][5] Merriam-Webster takes it as perhaps from an Old English -moc instead.^[9] Its Scandinavian relatives are Danish møg, Norwegian Nynorsk myk and Swedish dialect mök.^[4][5][8] The Norse word goes back to Proto-Germanic *mukį̄ (“dung, manure”),^[4] from a base *muk-, *meuk- "soft",^[7][8][10] the source also of meek.^[10][8][11] The OED traces it further to an Indo-European base meaning "slippery, slimy", comparing Latin mūcus.^[5][12] The verb, recorded from before 1413, is from the noun;^[5][9][3] the OED compares moka (“to shovel dung”).^[5][13][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dung, especially farm animals' dung mixed with straw and used as manure: about 1268, in an inquisition post mortem.^[5] Barnhart dates muc "filth, manure" to about 1250,^[3] and Etymonline to the mid 13th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From manure the word spread to mud and dirt of any kind, recorded from 1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum;^[5] Etymonline dates the general sense "unclean matter" to about 1300.^[7] Worldly wealth was also called muck, a sense found from about 1330 to 1864;^[5][2] the Middle English phrase wringen the muk meant to hoard one's money.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang treats it as a slang use for money.^[14] The verb first meant to clear dung from a stable (1429) and to spread manure on land (1440),^[5][9] and "to make dirty" is recorded from 1618 in a Scottish record,^[5] though Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1832, in Lamb.^[3][7] The phrasal verbs grew from it: muck about, to potter aimlessly, from 1856, and muck up, to make a mess of, by 1922.^[7][3] In the 19th century muck became a word for peaty soil used as manure (1832, originally American) and for waste rock from mining (1883).^[5][15] The proverb where there's muck there's brass is recorded in print only from the 1960s, after an earlier where there's muck there's money.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1268 – dung, farmyard manure.^[5]
• c. 1330 – worldly wealth, money (obsolete by 1864).^[5][2]
• c. 1390 – a worthless or contemptible person or thing.^[5]
• 1429 – verb: to clean dung out of a stable.^[5]
• 1440 – mud, dirt, filth; verb: to manure land.^[5]
• 1618 – verb: to make dirty; to spoil or bungle.^[5]
• 1766 – a dirty, sweaty or untidy state.^[5][7]
• 1832 – peaty soil used as manure.^[5]
• 1856 – muck about.^[7][3]
• 1883 – waste material removed in mining.^[5]
• 1922 – muck up, to make a mess of.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Farmyard dung or decaying vegetable matter, used as manure.^[15][9][5]
2. Dirt or filth, especially wet and sticky: The dogs came back covered in muck.^[15][9][5]
3. A dark soil rich in humus, used as a fertilizer.^[15][5]
4. Earth and rock removed in mining or excavation.^[15][9][5]
5. (chiefly British, informal) Rubbish; something worthless or unpleasant.^[15][9][5]
6. make a muck of (chiefly British, informal): to spoil or bungle.^[15]
7. (obsolete) Money, wealth.^[9][5]

Verb

1. To clear of manure or dirt, often with out: to muck out the stables.^[15][9][5]
2. To spread manure on land.^[15][5]
3. To remove earth and rock in mining or excavation.^[9][5]
4. To make dirty; to soil.^[15][5]
5. muck about or muck around (chiefly British, informal): to behave aimlessly or foolishly,^[16][7] and muck up, to spoil or make a mess of.^[16][7][5]

Word family

• muckily
• mucky
• mucker
• muckland
• muckrake
• muckworm
• muck-up

Related words

• meek
• mucus
• midden
• amok

Usage notes

Muck as a euphemism for fuck is recorded from 1929 for the verb and 1952 for the noun.^[5][14] The archaic muck, a murderous frenzy, as in run a muck, is a back-formation from amuck, a variant of amok, whose first vowel was taken as the indefinite article (1665–1880).^[5][9][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press