Etymology

mop

M3O1P3

Today it means: An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle. Full definition →

Middle English mappe ← Walloon mappe ← Latin mappa
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

mop · noun, verb1

  1. Semitic · derived from
  2. Latin · derived frommappa“napkin, cloth”
  3. Walloon · derived frommappe“napkin”
  4. Middle English · inherited frommappe
  5. English todaymop

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps borrowed from Walloon mappe (“napkin”), from Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian). Compare Modern Hebrew מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

mop · noun, verb2

  1. Middle English · inherited frommoppe“fool, simpleton; derisive gesture; child, baby, doll”
  2. English todaymop

From Middle English moppe (“fool, simpleton; derisive gesture; child, baby, doll”), of obscure origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“pout, protruding lip”). Compare Low German mop, mops (“simpleton; pugnosed dog”), Dutch mop, mops (“pugnosed dog”), and the verb mope.

Words from the same roots

Latinmappa all →

mapapronnape

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.