moth-er

noun
/ˈmɒðə/UK/ˈmɔðɚ/US/ˈmɑðɚ/

Etymology

Coined from moth + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix) by analogy to mouser, with the hyphen kept to avoid confusion with mother (“female parent”).

  1. derived from *mutn-
  2. inherited from *muþþô
  3. inherited from *moþþō
  4. inherited from moþþe
  5. inherited from moth
  6. formed as moth-er — “moth + -er

Definitions

  1. A person (especially an entomologist) or animal that catches moths.

    • Modern moth-ers use black lights, mercury vapor lamps, and portable generators to saturate the night sky[.]
    • Many species of bats are skilled ‘moth-ers’: they pursue them at speed after detecting them[.]
    • Real moth-ers, mothies or lepidopterists, will use a mercury vapour bulb and even a special trap[.]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for moth-er. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

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