"M" Word Origins

Mrs

English

A written contraction of mistress, once the ordinary courtesy title for a woman; the pronunciation 'missiz' developed separately from the spelling.

Ms

Origin · 1971

Used since the 1600s as a shortened form of "mistress" (the same root that gave us "Miss" and "Mrs."). It became widely popular in 1971 after the launch of Ms. magazine, as a way to address women without publicising their marital status.

msec

Origin

From Translingual m- (“milli-”) + English sec (“second”). First attested in 1935.

MSG

English

In the food sense, an initialism of monosodium glutamate; in the messaging sense, a written shortening of message.

MTF

English

An initialism of male-to-female.

MTV

Origin · 1981

Short for "Music Television," launched as a channel in 1981.

mu

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek mu, itself from a Phoenician letter meaning "water."

MUA

English

In the beauty sense, an initialism of makeup artist.

muah

English

Imitative of the sound of a kiss.

Muay

Origin

From Thai muay, meaning "boxing."

Mubarak

Arabic

From Arabic مبارك (mubārak, "blessed").

much

Latin

From Middle English muche/muchel, going back through Old English to a Proto-Germanic word meaning "great" or "many." Despite the resemblance, it is not related to the Spanish word mucho, which comes from Latin instead.

muchacho

Spanish

Borrowed directly from Spanish muchacho, meaning "boy" or "young man."

mucho

Latin

Borrowed from Spanish mucho ("much"), from Latin multus. Despite the similarity, it isn't historically related to the English word "much," which comes from a Germanic root.

mucho gusto

Spanish

Spanish, literally 'much pleasure', shortened from mucho gusto en conocerle 'much pleasure in meeting you'.

mucilage

Origin

From Middle English muscilage, mussillage, from Middle French mucilage (“viscous substance found in vegetable material”), from Late Latin mūcilāgō (“musty or moldy juice”). See Greek μούχλα (moúchla, “mold”), and related derivatives, for example mushroom, from *meus- (“mosses, mold, mildew”).

muck

Middle English

From Middle English mok/muk, borrowed from Old Norse myki ("dung"), related to the idea of something slick or slippery.

mucker

Origin

By surface analysis, muck + -er. Compare Swedish mokare/mockare (“one who cleans dung”, agent noun) → rörmokare/rörmockare (“plumber”, literally “pipe mucker”). Compare the military sense to Finnish mokkeri (“private”, colloquial), to Swedish mocka (“to clean muck”); and Swedish mecka/meka (“to repair or improve (mechanical) equipment”), to meckaniker (“mechanic”); also Swedish mucka (“to complete military service”), from Tavringer Romani mucka (“to be released”). The military sense might also derive from a slur, a common practice in military lingo.

muckle

Origin

From Middle English mukel, muchel, from the same source as (perhaps a variant of) mickle.

muckworm

Origin

From muck + worm.

mucky

Origin

From muck + the adjective-forming suffix -y.

mucosal

Origin

From mucosa + -al.

mucous

Latin

From Latin mucosus, based on mucus.

mucus

Latin

From Latin mucus, meaning nasal mucus.

MUD

Middle English

Traced back through Middle English mudde, likely related to a Middle Dutch word for mud, and further back to a Proto-Germanic root.

muddle

Dutch

From Middle Dutch moddelen ("to make muddy"), related to the word mud.

muddy

Old English

From mud plus the adjective suffix -y, going back to Old English roots.

mudpuddle

Origin

From mud + puddle.

mudstone

Origin

From mud + stone.

Mueller

German

From German Müller ("miller"); a doublet of Miller.

muff

Dutch

Probably from Dutch mof, meaning "muff" or "mitten."

muffett

Origin

Variant of Moffat.

muffin

German

Probably from a Low German word for a small pastry, moofin.

muffle

Origin

From Middle English muflen (“to muffle”), aphetic alteration of Anglo-Norman amoufler, from Old French enmoufler (“to wrap up, muffle”), from moufle (“mitten”), from Medieval Latin muffula (“a muff”), of Germanic origin (—first recorded in the Capitulary of Aachen in 817 C.E.), from Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) from *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) (from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”)) + *vël (“skin, hide”) (from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”). Alternate etymology traces the Medieval Latin word to Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”), English mulch) + *fell (“hide, skin”).

muffler

Origin

From muffle plus the agent suffix -er — "something that muffles."

Muffy

Origin

Shortened from Mary, Margaret, or other names.

mufti

Arabic

From Arabic muftī, the one who delivers a fatwa, from aftā 'to give a legal opinion'. The 'civilian clothes' sense arose in nineteenth-century British military slang; its connection to the Arabic word is not securely established.

mug

German · 1500

First recorded in 16th-century Scots and northern English dialect meaning "earthenware pot," of uncertain origin, possibly linked to Scandinavian or Low German words for a drinking vessel.

mugger

Origin

From mug ("to rob") plus the agent suffix -er.

muggins

Origin

Origin unknown. Sense 'fool' originally British slang of 1770s, probably an extension of earlier mug (“fool”). Game senses perhaps from surname Muggins.

muggle

Origin

Origin unknown; first known to have come into use in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., in the mid-1920s.

muggy

Origin

From dialectal English mug (“fog, mist; Scotch mist”) + -y, ultimately from Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”); borrowed some time before 1390, when a derived verb, Middle English mugen (“of a fog: to drizzle”), is attested.

mugshot

English

A compound of mug, slang for the face since the early eighteenth century — generally traced to drinking mugs moulded into grotesque faces — and shot in the sense of a photograph.

muh

Origin

Evidently popularized circa early 2010s by memes on 4chan, but usage online is first attested in c. 2003.

Muhammad

Arabic

From Arabic Muhammad, meaning "praised" or "praiseworthy."

muhtar

Origin

From Turkish muhtar and Ottoman Turkish مختار (muhtar, “village headman”), from North Levantine Arabic مختار (“village headman”), from substantive application of Arabic مُخْتَار (muḵtār, “chosen”).

mui

Cantonese

Borrowed from Cantonese 梅 (mui4), meaning "plum."

muid

Origin

Borrowed from French muid, from Latin modius. Doublet of modius and mud.