mutter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moteren, later mutteren,^[2][3][4][5] apparently formed on an imitative base with the frequentative suffix -er.^{[6][4][7][8][9]} The OED compares Old High German mutilōn (“to murmur, trickle”) and regional German muttern (“to mutter, grumble”);^[6] other dictionaries add dialectal Norwegian mutra^[5][10] and Old Norse muðla (“to murmur”).^[3][4][10] Etymonline and Klein set up an imitative Proto-Indo-European *mut- (“to grunt, mutter”),^[4][11] and the OED more remotely compares Latin muttiō (“to murmur, mutter”), mussō (“to mutter”) and mūtus (“mute”), with Ancient Greek μύειν (múein, “to close the lips or eyes”) and Latvian mute (“mouth”).^[6] Barnhart and the Middle English Dictionary instead take it as borrowed from the Latin verb,^[3][2] and the American Heritage Dictionary allows this as possible.^[12] Dictionary.com suggests that it is perhaps a frequentative of moot, from Old English mōtian (“to speak”),^[13] and Collins also compares the Old English verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a goat, to bleat: before 1325, in the glossary of Walter de Bibbesworth.^[6][2] Etymonline gives "to mumble" for the early 14th century,^[4] and Barnhart gives it before 1333.^[3] The earliest human use the OED cites is in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1385): And gan to motre, I noot what.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Beside the goat's bleat, Middle English used the verb of a person's low speech, with the lips nearly closed.^[6][2] From about 1450 it also meant grumbling in an undertone,^[6][2] and since 1555 it could introduce the words muttered, as in direct speech.^[6] Johnson (1755) separated "to utter with imperfect articulation" from "to grumble; to murmur", quoting Othello for both.^[14] In 1637 Milton's Comus has the noun mutters, a low indistinct utterance;^[6][14] Barnhart dates this to 1634.^[3] Sounds other than speech followed: since 1797, in Ann Radcliffe, mutter has been used of a low, ominous rumbling.^[6][8]

Timeline

• before 1325 – of a goat, to bleat (obsolete).^[6][2]
• before 1425 – to speak in a low, barely audible tone; to utter something indistinctly.^[6]
• c. 1450 – to grumble in an undertone.^[6]
• 1555 – transitive, with direct speech or a clause as object.^[6]
• 1637 – noun, a low indistinct utterance, in Milton's Comus.^[6]
• before 1690 – mutter over, to recite in low indistinct tones.^[6][8]
• 1797 – to make a low, ominous, rumbling sound.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To speak or say something in a low, indistinct voice with the lips nearly closed: He muttered an apology and left the room.^[5][10][6]
2. To grumble or complain in an undertone: The crew muttered about the new rota.^[5][10][6]
3. To make a low, continuous or rumbling sound: Thunder muttered beyond the hills.^[5][10][6]

Noun

1. A low, barely audible utterance or complaint.^[5][10][6]
2. A low continuous sound.^[10]

Word family

• mutterer
• mutteringly
• unmuttered

Related words

• mute
• mot
• motto

Usage notes

The OED has a separate verb mutter, to moulder (from 1609), of uncertain origin and perhaps a variant of moulter.^[6] The English Dialect Dictionary records "to crumble" in Surrey, Hampshire, Somerset and Devon, and in Cheshire a verb used of the weather growing close and sultry.^[15] A rare noun mutter, recorded from the mid-19th century, is a variety of pea from the Indian subcontinent, borrowed from Hindi.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ 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.
15. ^ 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)