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maggot

Pronunciation: /ˈmæɡət/

The English word “maggot” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
  2. A worthless, obnoxious or contemptible person.
  3. A whimsy or fancy.
  4. A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

verb

  1. To rid (an animal) of maggots.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.