mouldwarp
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- modiwarp, molewarp, moldwarp, modiwort, moldiwarp, moudiwarp, moudiwart, moudiewarp, mowdiwart, mowdiwort
Etymology edit
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”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mouldwarp (plural mouldwarps)
- (now regional, archaic) A mole, Talpa europea.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 1, subsection i:
- as the moldiwarp in Æsop told the fox […], you complain of toys, but I am blind, be quiet […].
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
- "Yi, an' there's some chaps as does go round like moudiwarps." He thrust his face forward in the blind, snout-like way of a mole, seeming to sniff and peer for direction.
Translations edit
mole — see mole