mud

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mʌd/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English mudde, mode,^[2][3] probably borrowed from Middle Low German mudde (“thick mud”) or Middle Dutch modde,^[2][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *mud-,^[4][2] cognate with Middle High German mot, bog, and Swedish modd.^[2][5] Etymonline relates it to a PIE *(s)meu-, found in words for wet or dirty, such as Greek mydos, damp;^[4] Barnhart compares Irish mothar, bog.^[2] Welsh mwd is from English, and the older English word is fen.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moist, soft earth: probably about 1380.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Mud as a type of what is worthless or polluting is from 1563,^[7] and the lowest or worst of anything from the 1580s.^[4] The verb, to cover with mud, is from 1593.^[3] Word Origins traces someone's name is mud to an 18th–19th-century slang use of mud for a stupid person,^[8] and dates clear as mud to the early 19th century, drag through the mud to the mid-19th century and here's mud in your eye to the 1920s.^[8] As hobo slang for coffee it is from 1925, and for opium from 1922.^[4] Tracts of mud by a tidal river, muds, are from 1883.^[7] A drilling mud, pumped down an oil well, is from 1901.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – mudde.^[2]
• 1563 – something worthless.^[7]
• 1593 – the verb.^[3]
• 1788 – mud pie.^[4]
• 1901 – drilling mud.^[7]
• 1925 – coffee (slang).^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Wet, sticky, soft earth, as after rain or on a riverbank.
2. Wet plaster, mortar or cement.
3. (informal) Slanderous charges: to sling mud.

Verb

1. To cover or spatter with mud.

Word family

• mudbug
• mudcap
• mudcat
• muddy
• mudfish
• mudflat
• mudflow
• mudguard

Related words

• muddle
• mudlark
• moss
• fen

Usage notes

An unrelated MUD, an abbreviation of multi-user dungeon, is a text-based computer game for several players, from the late 20th century.^[9][6] In northern English and Scots dialect a mud was a small nail used by shoemakers.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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)