The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*muldawurpiz“earth-thrower, mole”
- Old English · inherited from*moldeweorpe
- Middle English · inherited frommoldewarpe
- English todaymouldwarp
From Middle English moldewarpe, moldewarp, moldewerp, (also molwarpe, molewarpe), from Old English *moldeweorpe, ("mole"; literally "earth-thrower"; compare Old English wandeweorpe (“mole”)), from Proto-Germanic *muldawurpiz (“earth-thrower, mole”), equivalent to mould + warp. Cognate with Scots malwart, modewarp (“mole”), Dutch molworp (“mole”), Low German mulworp, molworm (“mole”), German Maulwurf (“mole”), Danish muldvarp (“mole”), Swedish mullvad (“mole”), Icelandic moldvarpa (“mole”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.