*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of Muff

* As an English surname, variant of Mowe, itself from Middle English maugh (“son-in-law”), from Old Norse mágr. * As a German and Alemannic German surname, from the noun mupf (“drooping mouth”), which is probably ultimat

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
name

A surname. · A diminutive of the female given name Myfanwy.

name

A village in County Donegal, Ireland. · An unincorporated community in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

* As an English surname, variant of Mowe, itself from Middle English maugh (“son-in-law”), from Old Norse mágr. * As a German and Alemannic German surname, from the noun mupf (“drooping mouth”), which is probably ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“protruding mouth, pout”).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

  • Derivation mentionmaughenm · son-in-law
  • Derivation mentionmágrnon
  • Derivation mention*mauwugmw-pro · protruding mouth, pout
Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "maugh",
        "t": "son-in-law"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English maugh (“son-in-law”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "mágr"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse mágr"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "de",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "German"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gsw",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Alemannic German"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*mauwu",
        "t": "protruding mouth, pout"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“protruding mouth, pout”)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "Mowe",
      "Mowe#English"
    ],
    [
      "maugh",
      "maugh#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "mágr",
      "mágr#Old_Norse"
    ],
    [
      "mupf",
      "mupf#German"
    ],
    [
      "*mauwu",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/mauwu"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A surname.",
        "A diminutive of the female given name Myfanwy."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "73cd7caef26f560914a49ca05bca9d3a2ad698defede70db619da11d8ebacb92",
      "rawRecordSha256": "96e646ad796f950a8cc1ff449b36853845a4e00b297c4c5acf8c12dba0d8b6b9",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 6690041
    },
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A village in County Donegal, Ireland.",
        "An unincorporated community in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "b7b4d84bec5fe711c3d00888217bfa003fd43ea59685727a7122f0dd003eb200",
      "rawRecordSha256": "188c814ae1422a94a668a6773f775c4bc4a8b0e0d7bfa0274a1dbc30cb166bb0",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 6690042
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Muff →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-TXVmZg