English
muddy
Muddy comes from Middle English muddi, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mew-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mew-root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500muddi
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596muddy
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mew-root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500muddi
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596muddy
Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto): “To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne?…”
The story
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English muddi, moddy, muddy (‘covered with or full of mud, muddy’), from mud, mudde (‘mud; turbid water’) + -i (suffix forming adjectives). Mud, mudde is possibly borrowed from Middle Dutch modde, and/or Middle Low German modde, mudde, from Proto-Germanic *mud-, *mudra- (‘mud’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mew- (‘moist’). The English word is analysable as mud + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *mew-
Today it means
adj Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *mew- / muddy