"M" Word Origins

Madhavi

Sanskrit

Borrowed from Sanskrit माधवी (mādhavī).

madhouse

Origin

A straightforward compound of mad and house.

Madhu

Sanskrit

Borrowed from Sanskrit मधु (madhu), meaning "honey" or "sweet".

madhvi

Origin

Borrowed from Sanskrit माधवी (mādhavī).

Madi

Origin

Fanciful variant of Maddie.

Madigan

Irish

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Madagáin (“descendant of Madagán”), a variant of the personal name Madadhán, which is from madadh (“dog”) + -án (“diminutive suffix”).

Madison

Origin · 1984

The given name was popularized by the 1984 film Splash, taking its name from Madison Avenue in Manhattan; the cycling race and place names trace to the surname Madison, itself from "Mathieson".

madisyn

Origin

Modern fanciful spelling of Madison.

madly

Origin

From mad plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

madman

Origin

A compound of mad and man.

madness

Middle English

From Middle English madnes, built from mad plus the suffix -ness.

Madonna

Italian

From Italian madonna, literally "my lady" (ma + donna).

Madras

Origin

Named after Madras (now Chennai), the Indian city the dish is associated with; the exact origin of the city name itself is disputed.

Madrid

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Madrid.

madrigal

Italian

From Italian madrigale, probably from Late Latin matricalis, meaning of the womb or mother and hence in the mother tongue, that is, sung in the vernacular rather than in Latin.

Madsen

Origin

Borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Madsen.

madura

Origin

From Indonesian Madura, said to be from madu (“honey”) + dara (“girl”).

Madurai

Origin

Borrowed from Tamil மதுரை (maturai), from Old Tamil 𑀫𑀢𑀼𑀭𑁃 (maturai).

madwoman

Origin

From mad + woman.

Maeda

Japanese

From Japanese 前田 (Maeda), literally "front rice field."

maelstrom

Dutch · 1841

Originally the name of a legendary whirlpool off the coast of Norway, from Dutch maelstrom ("whirling stream"); popularized in English by Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 story "A Descent into the Maelström".

maestro

Latin

From Italian maestro ("master"), from Latin magister.

maestrolike

Origin

From maestro + -like. Piecewise doublet of masterlike.

Maeve

Irish

Anglicized from Irish Méabh, going back to Medb, the name of a legendary warrior queen of Connacht.

maffett

Origin

Variant of Moffat.

Mafia

Italian · 1800

From Italian mafia, of disputed origin, most likely tied to 19th-century Sicilian dialect.

Mafioso

Italian

From Italian mafioso, from Sicilian mafiusu.

mag

Origin

The publication sense is a clipping of "magazine"; the older British dialect verb sense traces to "Mag," a pet form of the name Margaret, once associated with a talkative woman.

maga

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish maga.

magazine

Middle French · 1730

From Middle French magasin ("warehouse, store"), from Italian magazzino, ultimately from Arabic makhāzin, plural of makhzan ("storeroom"). The publication sense developed in the 1730s from the idea of a "storehouse" of information.

Magdalena

Spanish

From Spanish Magdalena, ultimately from the biblical epithet "of Magdala," shared with the English names Magdalene and Madeline.

Magdalene

Origin

From Mary Magdalene, "Mary of Magdala," a town on the Sea of Galilee; the generic sense arose from her traditional (though disputed) identification with a repentant sinner in the Gospel of Luke.

mage

Latin

From Latin magus, from Greek mágos, ultimately from an Old Persian word for a Zoroastrian priest.

Magee

Irish

A variant spelling of the Irish surname McGee.

Magellan

New Latin

From New Latin Magellanus, a Latinized form of Portuguese Magalhães.

magenta

French · 1859

Named after the Battle of Magenta (1859) in Italy, around the time a French chemist discovered the dye and named it in the battle's honor.

Maggie

Origin

Shortened from "magpie" plus the diminutive ending -ie; unrelated to the given name Maggie, which is a nickname for Margaret.

maggot

Old English

From Middle English magot, probably an altered form of an Old English word related to insect larvae; the old folk belief that whimsical or eccentric people had "maggots in the brain" gave rise to a now-obsolete figurative sense.

maggoted

Origin

From maggot + -ed.

Magi

Latin

From Latin magi, plural of magus, from Greek mágos, originally referring to Zoroastrian priest-astrologers of ancient Persia.

magic

Latin

From Old French magique, from Latin magicus, from Greek magikós, from mágos ("magus"), ultimately from an Old Persian term for a Zoroastrian priest.

magic spell

Old English

Spell comes from Old English spell, meaning a story, saying or message. The magical sense grew from the idea of words spoken with power. The unrelated verb spell, 'to name the letters of a word', came separately from Old French espeller.

magical

Origin

From magic + the adjective-forming suffix -al.

magically

Origin

From magical + -ly.

magician

Middle French

From Middle French magicien, from magique ("magic").

magister

Latin

From Latin magister ("master, teacher"), from magis ("more, greater"). A doublet of maestro, master, and meister.

magisterial

Origin

From Late Latin magisterialis, from Latin magisterium.

magistrate

Latin

From Latin magistratus, related to magister ("master").