Etymograph

English

moult

Moult comes from Old English *mutian ‘to exchange for’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to change’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-1‘to change’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtō1‘to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange, abandon’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*mutian1‘to exchange for’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mouten1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1899moult1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English moult
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1899, The Chautauquan: “[…] molted into a new suit so that he…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-Wiktionary, English moult‘to change’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmūtōWiktionary, English moult‘to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange, abandon’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*mutianWiktionary, English moult‘to exchange for’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500moutenWiktionary, English moult
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1899moultWiktionary, English moult. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1899, The Chautauquan: “[…] molted into a new suit so that he…”

The story

From Middle English mouten, from Old English *mutian (attested in bemutian, “to exchange for”), from Latin mūtō (‘to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange, abandon’). The unetymological ⟨l⟩ was introduced into the spelling by mistakenly assuming a French origin with -l- as in fault and vault; compare solder, which in contrast has an etymological ⟨l⟩ (from Latin solidāre, “to make solid“) but was historically pronounced without that grapheme's sound.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to change’

miss, message, mad, mess, commit, premise, madden, intermittent, omit, misnomer, transmutation, commutation, transmute, 18 more

through Latin mūtō ‘to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange,…’

mute, mutant, mutation, immutable, mutate, commutative, mutable, 13 more

through Middle English mouten

molt, 1 more

Today it means

noun The process of shedding or losing a covering of fur, feathers or skin etc.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “moult”. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- / moult

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