moth

 

From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa (“moth”), from Proto-West Germanic *moþþō, *mottō, from Proto-Germanic *muþþô, *muttô (“moth, worm”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɒθ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: môth, IPA^(key): /mɔθ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /mɑθ/, enPR: mŏth

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒθ, -ɔːθ

moth (plural moths)

2. A usually nocturnal insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

3. (figurative) Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

• lep

moth (third-person singular simple present moths, present participle mothing, simple past and past participle mothed)

1. (intransitive) To hunt for moths.

• butterfly
• caterpillar
• worm

 

From Hindi मोठ (moṭh); see moth bean.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məʊt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: mōt, IPA^(key): /moʊt/
• Rhymes: -əʊt
• Homophones: moat, mote

moth (countable and uncountable, plural moths)

1. A moth bean plant (Vigna aconitifolia).

• (Vigna aconitifolia): Turkish gram, mat bean, matki

• moth bean
• moth flour

•   Vigna aconitifolia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
•   Vigna aconitifolia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
•   Vigna aconitifolia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• moth at USDA Plants database

Alternative form of mot (“woman; wife”), likely under influence from Irish maith (“goodness”).

moth (plural moths)

1. (Ireland, slang) A girlfriend.

moth (plural moths)

1. Obsolete form of mote.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, / A moth of peace, and he go to the war, / The rites for which I love him are bereft me, / And I a heavy interim shall support / By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

2. (dated) A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.
   • 1895, Good Housekeeping, page 196, ISSN: 0731-3462

     To remove moth patches, wash the spots with a solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times a day, until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours.

   • 1999, R. L. Gupta, Directory of Diseases & Cures: In Homoeopathy, →ISBN, page 254:

     Craves for sour things, chalks and eggs, fatty people with light brown spots on the face or liver spots, moth patches on forehead and cheek.

   • 2005, J. D. Patil, Textbook of Applied Materia Medica, →ISBN, page 108:

     There are signs of liver affections as weakness, yellow complexion, liver spots, and moth spot like a saddle over the nose.

• Thom

The word also carried the original meaning of "male organ," from Proto-Celtic *muto-, from Proto-Indo-European *mHú-to- (“strong one”), perhaps later "penis," related to Hittite [script needed] (mūwa, “something awe-inspiring”) and Luwian [script needed] (mūwa-, “to overpower”), possibly also Latin muto (“penis”).^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): /moθ/

moth m

1. amazement, stupor
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 68^b9

     cia beith ar n‑acathar nech inna rétu inducbaidi in betha so, arnach·corathar i mmoth ⁊ machthad dia seirc ⁊ dia n‑accubur

     though it be that someone sees the glorious things of this world, that he may not be put in stupor and admiration by love for them and by desire for them

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 moth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

• IPA^(key): /moːθ/

moth

1. Nasal mutation of both.