"M" Word Origins

moneylender

Origin

A compound of "money" and "lender."

moneylending

Origin

From money + lending.

moneyless

Origin

From Middle English moneyeles, equivalent to money + -less.

moneymaker

Middle English

A straightforward compound of "money" and "maker," first used in Middle English for someone who literally minted coins.

moneyman

Origin

From money + man.

Moneypenny

Origin

From money and penny, an old nickname for a miser.

mong

Old English

From Old English ġemong, "a mixture, crowd, company" — the same root that gives us the word "among."

monged

Origin

From mong + -ed.

monger

Latin

From Old English mangere, "dealer, trader," ultimately traced back to Latin mangō, "a dealer" — most familiar today in combined forms like "fishmonger" and "warmonger."

mongo

Origin

Origin uncertain; the scavenging sense arose in New York City street slang.

Mongol

Origin

Borrowed from Classical Mongolian mongɣol, the people's own name for themselves.

Mongolia

Origin

Formed from "Mongol" plus the place-name suffix "-ia."

Mongolian

Origin

From "Mongolia" plus the adjective suffix "-an."

mongoloid

Origin

Formed from "Mongol" plus the suffix "-oid," meaning "resembling."

mongoose

Portuguese

From Portuguese manguço, borrowed from a Marathi word for the animal that traces back to an old Dravidian root. The English spelling was later reshaped by folk association with "goose" — the plural is properly "mongooses," not "mongeese."

mongrel

Middle English

From Middle English mongrel, built from "mong" (a mixture, related to "among") plus a diminutive ending that originally carried a negative tone.

mongtard

Origin

From mong (“person with Down syndrome”) + -tard, or possibly a combination of mong + retard.

monic

Origin

From mono- + -ic.

Monica

Latin

From Latin Monica, the name of St. Augustine's mother, likely of Berber or Phoenician origin.

Monika

Origin

A less common spelling of Monica, used since the twentieth century.

moniker

Origin · 1800

Origin uncertain, first recorded in the mid-1800s; theories link it to old slang for "name" or to words meaning "monogram" or "monk," but none is confirmed.

monitor

Latin

From Latin monitor, "one who warns," from monere, "to warn or remind" — the same root behind "admonish" and "premonition."

monitoring

Origin

From monitor + -ing.

monk

Late Latin

From Old English munuc, from Late Latin monachus, from Greek monakhos, "solitary," from monos, "alone."

monkey

German

Origin uncertain; likely traced through Middle Low German to a name given to a monkey character in medieval fables, possibly ultimately from an Arabic word for baboon.

monkey business

English

From monkey, long used of mischievous or tricky behaviour, plus business in the sense 'goings-on, activity'.

monkeydonia

Origin

Blend of monkey + Macedonia. Possibly a calque of Bulgarian Маймунодония (Majmunodonija). Used primarily by Greek, Albanian, and Bulgarian nationalists to suggest that North Macedonia's statehood and ethnogenesis is illegitimate, and that the name Macedonia was usurped, referring to North Macedonia's naming dispute with Greece.

monkeyish

Origin

From monkey + -ish. Piecewise doublet of monkeyesque.

monkeyshine

Origin

From monkey + shine.

monkfish

Origin

Formed from "monk" plus "fish" — the fish's odd, hooded head was thought to resemble a monk's cowl.

mono

Origin

A shortening of "monophonic."

monocle

Late Latin

From French monocle, from Late Latin monoculus, "one-eyed," combining "mono-" (single) with "oculus" (eye).

monocycle

Origin

From mono- + cycle, thus literally "one wheel".

monogamous

Greek

From "mono-" (single) plus "-gamous," from Greek gamos, "marriage."

monogamousness

Origin

From monogamous + -ness.

monogamy

French

From French monogamie, ultimately from Greek monogamia, "having one marriage."

monoglot

Origin

From mono- + -glot.

monogram

Latin

From French monogramme, from Latin monogrammus, ultimately from Greek monogrammos, "outlined in single lines."

monograph

Origin

From mono- (“one”) + -graph (“write”).

monolith

French

From French monolithe, from Greek monolithos, "made from a single stone" — combining "mono-" (single) with lithos (stone).

monologue

French

Borrowed from French monologue, modeled after "dialogue" and built from Greek roots meaning "single speech."

monopathy

Origin

From mono- + -pathy.

monophonic

Origin

From mono- + -phonic. Compare Ancient Greek μονόφωνος (monóphōnos, “with only one voice or tone”)

monophysitism

Origin

From Byzantine Greek μονοφυσιτισμός (monophusitismós), from μόνος (mónos, “only one”) + φύσις (phúsis, “nature”) + -ισμός (-ismós, “-ism”), hence “belief in a single nature”.

monopod

Origin

From mono- + -pod.

monopolize

Origin

From "monopoly" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ize."

monopoly

Latin

From Latin monopolium, from Greek monopolion, "the exclusive right to sell," combining monos (sole) with poleo (to sell).

monorail

French

Borrowed from French monorail, combining "mono-" (single) with "rail."