The story
- Middle Dutch · derived frommoddelen“to make muddy”
- Middle English · inherited frommodelen
- English todaymuddle
From Middle English modelen (attested in present participle modeland (“wallowing”)), from Middle Dutch moddelen (“to make muddy”), from modde, mod (“mud”) (Modern Dutch modder). By surface analysis, mud + -le. Compare German Kuddelmuddel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.