maggot

Meaning

Noun

1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
2. (derogatory, slang) A worthless person.
3. (archaic, dialectal) A whimsy or fancy.
4. (slang) A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

Verb

To rid (an animal) of maggots.

Adj

Alternative form of maggoted (“drunk; intoxicated”).

Synonyms

worm

🪱

grub

larva

caterpillar

🐛

insect

whim

caprice

mosquito larva

gentle

germ

kink

lice

louse

maggots

moodiness

putrid

quirk

rotten

vagary

whimsicalness

whimsy

wriggler

sprog

measuring worm

tetchiness

John Fletcher

wor n

bacteria

riceworm

beetle

🪲

crankiness

creepy-crawly

crotchet

crotchetiness

fancy

freak

Translations

asticot

Made

gusano

🪱

larve

larva

larva

made

verme

🪱

Larve

larva

ver

🪱

larve

kurtçuk

baco

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmæɡət/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: magot

Cognate with Old English: maþa

Cognate with Scots: mathe

Cognate with Dutch: made

Cognate with German: Made

Cognate with Swedish: mask

In summary

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 their brain.