See also: MOSS, Moss, and möss

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English mos, from Old English mos (bog, marsh, moss), from Proto-West Germanic *mos (marsh, moss), from Proto-Germanic *musą (marsh, moss), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (moss).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moas (moss), West Frisian moas (moss), Dutch mos (moss), German Low German Moss (moss), German Moos (moss), Danish mos (moss), Swedish mossa (moss), Icelandic mosi (moss), Latin muscus (moss), Russian мох (mox, moss),[1] Polish mech. Doublet of mousse.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

moss (countable and uncountable, plural mosses)

  1. Any of various small, green, seedless plants growing on the ground or on the surfaces of trees, stones, etc.; now specifically, a plant of the phylum Bryophyta (formerly division Musci).
    Hypernym: bryophyte
  2. (countable) A kind or species of such plants.
  3. (informal) Any alga, lichen, bryophyte, or other plant of seemingly simple structure.
    Hyponyms: alga, cryptogam, lichen
    Spanish moss
    Irish moss
    club moss
  4. (now chiefly UK regional) A bog; a fen.
    the mosses of the Scottish border

Usage notesEdit

  • The plural form mosses is used when more than one kind of moss is meant. The singular moss is used referring to a collection of moss plants of the same kind.

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

moss (third-person singular simple present mosses, present participle mossing, simple past and past participle mossed)

  1. (intransitive) To become covered with moss.
    An oak whose boughs were mossed with age.
  2. (transitive) To cover (something) with moss.

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

  • A New English dictionary on historical principles, Volume 6, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, Sir William Alexander Craigie, Charles Talbut Onions, editors, Clarendon Press, 1908, pages 684-6

Further readingEdit

AnagramsEdit

HungarianEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

mos +‎ -j

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

moss

  1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of mos
    Moss fogat!Brush your teeth! (literally, “Wash tooth!”)

Usage notesEdit

Not to be confused with mos (to wash).