mulch

Etymology

The noun is probably the adjective mulch, soft, used as a noun,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} that is inherited from Middle English molsh (“soft, moist (of soil)”),^[7][5][6] a variant of melishe, also melshe,^[7] inherited from Old English milisc (“honeyed, sweet, mellow”), also melsc.^[7][8][5][6] The revised OED is less sure: it takes the adjective either as the reflex of an Old English word that is not recorded, cognate with early modern German mölsch, Low German mullsch and regional German mulsch, all meaning soft or rotten, or as a borrowing of the German word; it traces them to the zero grade of the Germanic base of Middle Dutch malsc.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary also compares Dutch mals (“soft, mellow”),^[9] Hoad Middle High German molwic (“soft”), German mollig and Old High German molawēn (“to be soft”), cognate with Latin mollis (“tender, soft”),^[10] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary go back to Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“soft”).^[5][9] Merriam-Webster calls it perhaps an irregular form of the dialect adjective melch.^[11] The verb is from the noun.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective, of soil, soft and moist: c. 1440, in the Middle English translation of Palladius on husbandry.^[2][7] The noun, partly rotted plant material, follows in 1657, in Samuel Purchas's book on flying insects.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant half-rotten straw or similar litter and came to mean any loose material, such as straw, leaves or bark, spread on the soil to protect plants;^[2][3] from 1882 it could also be a particular mixture or an application of it.^[2] The verb, to cover with mulch, is recorded from 1715,^[2] while Etymonline finds it in mulched in 1748.^[5] The adjective died out in standard English, but in Cheshire dialect mulch weather was damp and mild (1877).^[2][12] Wright's dialect dictionary records the word from Yorkshire to Somerset: in Suffolk it meant only long litter soaked with dung, in Essex a thick slurry of earth and water, and in the West Riding the verb could mean to soften or to water the soil while planting.^[12] Thomas Hardy's maids in Tess (1891) walk in pattens to keep their shoes above the mulch of the farmyard.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – adjective, of soil, soft and moist (now obsolete).^[2][7]
• 1657 – noun, partly rotted straw or plant material.^[2][6]
• 1715 – verb, to cover ground or a plant with mulch.^[2] Etymonline finds it first in mulched in 1748.^[5]
• 1877 – adjective, in Cheshire, of the weather, damp and mild.^[2]
• 1882 – noun, a particular mixture of such material, or an application of it.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A layer of loose material, such as straw, leaves, bark, compost or gravel, spread on the ground around plants to keep in moisture, keep down weeds or protect the roots.^[13][11][2]
2. Rotting straw lying on the ground, often mixed with mud or manure.^[11][12]

Verb

1. To cover the ground around plants with mulch: She mulched the rose beds before the frost.^[13][11][2]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Of soil, soft and moist.^[2][7]

Word family

• nonmulched
• mulcher

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f 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)
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d 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)
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins