Etymologically
Log in

mull

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word mull

Pronunciation

mull1 to ponder; dust

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1303 Mannyng's Handlyng Synne
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch mul via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch mul

Etymology

The word for dust and rubbish, and with it the verb meaning to grind and later to ponder, is inherited from Middle English mul, also mol and molle,[2][3] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch mul (“grit, loose earth”).[2][3][4][5] It is cognate with Middle Low German mūl (“dust”), German Müll (“rubbish”) and Old Norse mylja (“to crush”),[2][6][4] and with Old English myl (“dust, mould”), from an ablaut variant of the Indo-European base of meal (flour).[6][3] The revised OED calls the noun's origin uncertain: it may continue an unrecorded Old English word without i-mutation beside myl, or be a loan from one of the continental cognates, or come from a Middle English adjective meaning "soft" and its French and Latin sources, such as Latin mollis.[6] Wiktionary takes it as inherited from the Old English word.[1] The Middle English verb mullen, also mollen, is taken from the noun by Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford,[3][4] while the Middle English Dictionary and Etymonline derive it from Old French moillier and Medieval Latin molliō,[7][8] which Etymonline traces to Latin molō (“to grind”) and Proto-Indo-European *mele- (“to crush, grind”).[8] The OED leaves open whether it comes from the noun, is a variant of moil, or comes from the French and Latin words.[6] The sense "to ponder" is perhaps a figurative use of "to grind" according to Barnhart and Etymonline;[2][8] the OED treats it as a separate verb of unclear origin and compares Dutch meulen (“to think over, ruminate”),[6] and Collins derives it from muddle.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dust, ashes, rubbish: Barnhart finds mul about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to the 14th century.[3] The OED's first quotation is from Gower's Confessio Amantis, before 1393.[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb is first recorded in Trevisa's translation of Higden, before 1387, meaning "to become liquid",[6][7] and in the Promptorium Parvulorum (1440) both "to drizzle" and "to grind to powder, crumble".[6][7][2] The grinding sense survived mainly in northern English dialect.[6][8] Shakespeare's mull'd in Coriolanus (before 1616), "softened, made dull", is of uncertain interpretation and may be a separate word;[6] Johnson (1755) read it as wine "burnt and sweetened".[10] In Scots and northern dialects mull meant dry, fine mould, especially broken pieces of peat or turf, as well as dust and rubbish.[11] The noun "muddle, mess", chiefly in make a mull of, appears in 1821;[6][12] the OED thinks it perhaps a shortening of mullock or an alteration of muddle,[6] while the Shorter Oxford and Hoad take it from the grinding verb.[4][5] From it came the verb "to bungle", used of dropping a catch, from 1862.[6] In American English the verb meant "to let a problem settle itself by doing nothing" in 1857, and "to consider, ponder" from 1873, in a letter of John Fiske;[6][12][2] mull over follows in 1874.[6] In 20th-century science a mull is a suspension of a finely ground solid in a liquid (1956), and the verb means to make one (1941).[6][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1303 – noun, dust, ashes, rubbish.[2] The OED's first quotation is from before 1393.[6]
  • before 1387 – verb, to become wet or liquid (obsolete).[6][7]
  • 1440 – to grind to powder, crumble; also to drizzle (obsolete).[6][7][2]
  • before 1616 – to soften, make mild (obsolete).[6]
  • 1821 – a muddle, a mess, chiefly in make a mull of.[6][12]
  • 1857 – US, to let a problem settle itself by inaction (obsolete).[6]
  • 1862 – to bungle; to drop or miss a ball.[6]
  • 1873 – US, to consider, ponder.[6][2][8][12]
  • 1874 – mull over, to turn over in one's mind.[6]
  • 1941 – in science, to grind into a suspension; the noun, such a suspension, follows in 1956.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To think about carefully; to ponder or ruminate, often with over: They mulled over the offer for a week before saying yes.[9][6][13]
  2. To grind or mix thoroughly; to pulverize or crumble.[3][6]
  3. (British) To bungle; to fumble or miss a catch.[3][6][4]

Noun

  1. (chiefly British dialect) Dust, dry mould; also peat.[3][6][11]
  2. A muddle or mess, chiefly in make a mull of.[6][4][3]
  3. (chemistry) A suspension of a finely ground solid in a liquid, used in recording its infrared spectrum.[6][4]

mull2 headland

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300s
Borrowed from
Scottish Gaelic maol
Ultimate origin
Scottish Gaelic maol

Etymology

The word for the headland is probably partly borrowed from Scottish Gaelic maol (“bare hill, brow of a hill, promontory”), a noun use of the adjective meaning "bald, bare", and partly borrowed from Old Norse múli (“snout, muzzle; jutting crag”).[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged traces it through Middle English mole, a Scots form, to the Old Norse word,[3] and Etymonline also prefers the Norse source, giving the Gaelic one as an alternative;[8] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Collins compare both,[5][4][9] and Weekley left the choice open.[14] The Norse word, used for a headland as an extension of "snout", is related to Old Frisian mūla, Middle Dutch mule, Old High German mūla and German Maul (“muzzle, mouth”),[6][8][15][3] and probably to Ancient Greek μύλλον (múllon, “lip”).[6][15] The Gaelic word goes back, according to Etymonline, to Proto-Celtic *mailos, also the source of Irish maol, Old Irish máel and Welsh moel.[8] In Orkney and Shetland the word came through Norn.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A promontory, in Scottish place names: late 14th century according to Etymonline,[8] 14th century according to Hoad and Collins.[5][9] The OED's first quotation is from the burgh accounts of Ayr, 1429.[6]

Semantic evolution

The word is used mostly in Scottish place names, such as the Mull of Kintyre and the Mull of Galloway,[3][4] and the OED notes that such names can hardly be told apart from ordinary uses.[6] Wright recorded it in Orkney and Argyll.[11] Weekley adds that the Gaelic word, in the sense of a tonsure, appears in many Celtic names in Mal- and Mul-, such as Malcolm.[14]

Timeline

  • late 14th century – a promontory, in Scottish place names.[8] The OED's first record is from 1429.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Scottish) A headland or promontory, frequent in place names such as the Mull of Kintyre.[3][4][9][6]

mull3 to heat and spice a drink

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1607 Wilkins, The Miseries of Inforst Mariage

Etymology

The verb for heating and spicing a drink is of unknown origin.[6][3][16][4][5][9] The OED rejects a derivation from the noun or verb for powder, referring to the ground spices, since neither is recorded in such a sense, and doubts that the first meaning was "to soften", because the earliest examples imply "to heat".[6] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest Dutch mol (“a kind of white, sweet beer”), now obsolete, related to West Flemish molle (“a kind of beer”);[2][8] the OED mentions this theory, and also compares Latin mulsum (“honeyed wine”).[6] Weekley proposed French mollir (“to soften”), from Latin mollis (“soft”).[14] The once-popular view that mulled ale is a corruption of mouldale is, according to the OED, almost certainly mistaken.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To heat wine or ale with sugar and spices: first as the participle in mulled sack, 1607, in Wilkins's The Miseries of Inforst Mariage.[6][2][14] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to 1618,[3] and Etymonline to about 1600.[8]

Semantic evolution

The drink was formerly sometimes thickened with beaten egg yolk.[6] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to heat any liquor, and sweeten and spice it", quoting Gay's line "Drink new cyder mull'd, with ginger warm".[10] The word is used chiefly in the participle mulled,[4] and a noun mull, mulled wine, is recorded from 1925.[6][4]

Timeline

  • 1607 – to heat wine or ale with sugar and spices, first in mulled sack.[6][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1618.[3]
  • 1925 – noun, mulled wine.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To heat a drink such as wine, cider or ale with sugar and spices: We mulled a jug of cider for the carol singers.[3][9][16][6]

Noun

  1. Mulled wine or another mulled drink.[3][6][4]

mull4 thin muslin

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1678
Ultimate origin
Hindi मलमल

Etymology

The word for the fabric is from English a shortening of mulmul,[6][3][4][15] which is from Hindi मलमल (malmal, “muslin”).[6][3][9][1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the Hindi word from Persian, while Klein has the Persian word from Hindi;[3][15] the OED suggests it may go back to a Sanskrit word for dirt, through an earlier vernacular adjective meaning "inferior".[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thin, plain muslin: 1678, in a letter preserved in the India Office records.[6][3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dates the word to 1798.[17]

Semantic evolution

The longer form mulmul is recorded from 1619.[6] Weekley quotes mull from Northanger Abbey and marks it obsolete,[14] but in bookbinding it lived on for the fine muslin glued to the spine of a book before the cover is put on, from 1880.[6][4]

Timeline

  • 1678 – a thin, plain muslin.[6][3]
  • 1810 – used attributively.[6]
  • 1880 – in bookbinding, muslin stuck to the spine of a book.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A soft, thin, plain-woven muslin of cotton, silk or rayon.[3][9][6]
  2. (bookbinding) Muslin glued to the spine of a book before the cover is attached.[6][4][3]

Usage notes

Soil scientists use mull for humus that is mixed into the mineral soil beneath instead of forming a separate layer, a word from Danish muld (“soil”) recorded from 1923.[6][3][4] A Scots mull, a snuffbox, is a variant of mill, recorded from about 1762.[6][4][14] Mull, short for mulligatawny, was a nickname for members of the service in the Madras Presidency.[6][18][12] Mull is also the name of an island in the Inner Hebrides.[9][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ 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)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c 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)
  12. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c d e f Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  18. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

  • clan · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • glen · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • whiskey · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • loch · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • slogan · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • spree · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • bard · also from Scottish Gaelic
  • ben · also from Scottish Gaelic
Cite this entry

“Mull.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/mull. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·