Etymology

mewl

M3E1W4L1

Today it means: To cry weakly with a soft, high-pitched sound; to whimper; to whine. Full definition →

Middle English mewen
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Middle English · derived frommewen“to whimper”
  2. English todaymewl

From 1599 or earlier (1530 in a Scottish document), apparently from Shakespeare with this spelling. Perhaps from Middle English mewen (“to whimper”) + -le (frequentative suffix).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishmewen all →

meowmew

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.