Etymology

mildew

M3I1L1D2E1W4

Today it means: A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances. Full definition →

Middle English myldew ← Old English mildēaw ← Proto-West Germanic *milidauw
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mélit
  2. Proto-Germanic*mili
  3. Proto-West Germanic*mili
  4. Proto-Indo-European*dʰewh₂-der.?
  5. Proto-Germanic*dawwą
  6. Proto-West Germanic*dauw
  7. Proto-West Germanic*milidauw
  8. Old Englishmildēaw
  9. Middle Englishmyldew
  10. English todaymildew

From Middle English myldew, from Old English mildēaw, meledēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *milidauw, from *mili (“honey”) + *dauw (“dew”). Compare West Frisian moaldau, Dutch meeldauw, German Mehltau. More at dew.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.