maggot

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The small, soft, legless larva of a fly, often found in rotting meat or waste.

   The bin was crawling with maggots after a week in the summer heat.

2. 2
   noun

   An insulting term for a person regarded as contemptible or worthless.

   The drill sergeant screamed at the recruits, calling them maggots.

From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”). The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in th…

Topics