"M" Word Origins

mount

Latin

From Old English munt, borrowed from Latin mons ("mountain, hill") — the same root gives us "eminent" and "mount" as in Mount Everest.

mountain

Latin

From Anglo-Norman muntaine, ultimately from Latin mōns ("mountain") — the same root as "mount."

mountaineer

Origin

From mountain + -eer.

mountaineering

Origin

From mountaineer + -ing.

mountainous

Latin

From "mountain" plus the suffix "-ous," echoing French montagneux and, further back, Latin montem, "mountain."

mountainside

Origin

"Mountain" plus "side" — literally the side of a mountain.

mountaintop

Origin

"Mountain" plus "top."

mountebank

Origin

From archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), contracted from monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).

mounted

Origin

From "mount" plus "-ed."

mounter

Origin

From mount + -er.

Mountie

Origin

From "mounted" plus the informal suffix "-ie," originally referring to mounted (horseback) police officers.

mounting

Origin

From "mount" plus "-ing."

mourn

French

From Old English murnan, "to grieve," related to a Germanic root shared with the French word morne, "gloomy."

mournful

Origin

From "mourn" plus "-ful."

mourning

Origin

From "mourn" plus "-ing."

mouse

Old English · 1965

From Old English mūs, tracing back to a very old Proto-Indo-European word for the animal. The computer sense was coined by engineer Bill English in 1965, after the device's cord resembled a tail.

mouser

Origin

From Middle English mousere (“a hunter of mice”), equivalent to mouse + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix). The “moustache” sense is apparently an extended usage (i.e., a cat’s whiskers, jocularly transferred to human beings), possibly with influence from moustache.

mousetrap

Middle English

From Middle English mouse-trappe, a straightforward combination of "mouse" and "trap." The web-browser sense borrows the trap idea for a page that won't let you leave.

mousse

French

From French mousse, "foam" or "froth," ultimately related to the word "moss."

moustache

French

From French moustache, tracing back through Italian and Byzantine Greek to an ancient word for "upper lip."

mousy

Origin

From "mouse" plus "-y."

mouth

Latin

From Old English mūþ, from an ancient Germanic root also connected to Latin words for "chin" and "to chew."

mouthful

Origin

From "mouth" plus "full," literally meaning "as much as fills the mouth."

mouthpiece

Origin

From "mouth" plus "piece."

mouthwash

Origin

"Mouth" plus "wash" — a wash for the mouth.

mouthy

Origin

From "mouth" plus "-y."

mouton

Origin

Borrowed from French mouton (“sheep”). Doublet of mutton.

movable

Origin

From Old French movable. By surface analysis, move + -able.

move

Latin

From Old French mover, ultimately from Latin movēre, "to move." It largely replaced the older native English word "stir" in this sense.

movember

Origin

Blend of mo (“moustache”) + November

movement

Latin

From Old French movement, from Latin movere 'to move', with the noun suffix -ment.

mover

Origin

From "move" plus the agent suffix "-er."

movie

Origin · 1900

Short for "moving picture" plus "-ie," first recorded in American English in the early 1900s.

moving

Origin

From "move" plus "-ing."

mow

Latin

From Old English māwan, "to mow, reap," a very old word shared across Germanic languages and related to Latin metō, "to harvest."

Mowbray

Old French

A habitational surname from the village of Montbray in Normandy, from Old French mont ("hill") and brai ("mud").

mower

Origin

From "mow" plus the agent suffix "-er."

mowing

Origin

From "mow" plus "-ing."

moxie

Origin · 1880

From Moxie, the brand name of an American soft drink first sold in the 1880s that was marketed as giving people vigor and nerve — the sense of "courage" caught on from the advertising.

moya

Origin

Believed to originate from a South American language, first used to describe mudflows from the Pichincha volcano near Quito, Ecuador.

Moz

Origin

A clipping of Morrissey plus -z.

Mozambique

Portuguese

From Portuguese Moçambique, derived from the name of a local sultan, Mussa Bin Bique, whose island became the namesake of the whole country.

Mozart

German · 1756

From the surname of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791); the German surname itself is first recorded in the 14th century.

mozzarella

Italian

From Italian mozzarella, from mozzare, "to cut off" — describing how the cheese curd is cut during shaping.

MP3

English

Short for MPEG-1 Audio Layer III, from MPEG, an acronym of Moving Picture Experts Group.

MP4

English

Short for MPEG-4 Part 14, from MPEG, an acronym of Moving Picture Experts Group.

MRI

Origin

An initialism for "magnetic resonance imaging."

mRNA

English

An abbreviation of messenger ribonucleic acid.