moth

noun
/mɒθ/UK/mɔθ/US/mɑθ//məʊt/UK/moʊt/US

Etymology

From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa (“any destructive insect larva”), from Proto-West Germanic *moþþō, *mottō, from Proto-Germanic *muþþô, *muttô (“moth, worm”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott (“moth”).

  1. derived from *mutn-
  2. inherited from *muþþô
  3. inherited from *moþþō
  4. inherited from moþþe
  5. inherited from moth

Definitions

  1. Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most…

    Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.

  2. Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

  3. To hunt for moths.

  4. + 4 more definitions
    1. A moth bean plant (Vigna aconitifolia).

    2. A girlfriend.

    3. Obsolete form of mote.

      • So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, / A moth of peace, and he go to the war, / The rites for which I love him are bereft me, / And I a heavy interim shall support / By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
    4. A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.

      • To remove moth patches, wash the spots with a solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times a day, until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours.
      • Craves for sour things, chalks and eggs, fatty people with light brown spots on the face or liver spots, moth patches on forehead and cheek.
      • There are signs of liver affections as weakness, yellow complexion, liver spots, and moth spot like a saddle over the nose.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at moth. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01moth02flying03hurried04hurry05leading06ranking07rank08taste09tongue

A definitional loop anchored at moth. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at moth

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA