Etymograph

English

mop

Mop comes from Middle English mappe.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mappe1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1869mop1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mop
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “The hair is very peculiar, being harsh, dry, and…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mappeWiktionary, English mop
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1869mopWiktionary, English mop. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “The hair is very peculiar, being harsh, dry, and…”

The story

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps borrowed from Walloon mappe (‘napkin’), from Latin mappa (‘napkin, cloth’). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin mappa ‘napkin, cloth’

apron, nape, 2 more

Another origin of mop

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500moppe‘fool, simpleton’
  2. Englishtodaymop

From Middle English moppe (‘fool, simpleton; derisive gesture; child, baby, doll’), of obscure origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (‘pout, protruding lip’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Today it means

noun An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mop”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English mappe / mop

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