Etymograph

English

muffin

Muffin may come from Low German Muffe.

  1. Low GermanmodernMuffeuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1813muffin

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Low GermanmodernMuffeuncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1813muffin

Earliest quotation: 1813, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “[…] but he had still at intervals a kind…”

The story

An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”).disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it. Sense “vulva” influenced by muff.

Every English word from Low German Muffe

Today it means

noun A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc., before being eaten.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Low German Muffe / muffin

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