GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL8 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Mole”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
MoleEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
From Latin mola (“mill”), or otherwise a back-formation from Molesey (“Mul's Island”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-West Germanic *mail, from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *melw- (“dark, dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey-, *my- (“to soil, sully”). Cognate with Scots mail (“spot, stain”), Saterland Frisian Moal (“scar”), German dialectal Meil (“spot, stain, blemish”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻 (mail, “spot, blemish”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English molle, molde, mole (“mole”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *mol(h), from Proto-Germanic *mulaz, *mulhaz (“mole, salamander”), from Proto-Indo-European *molg-, *molk- (“slug, salamander”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)melw- (“to grind, crush, beat”). Cognate with North Frisian mull (“mole”), Saterland Frisian Molle (“mole”), Dutch mol (“mole”), German Low German Mol, Mul, Mull (“mole”), German Molch (“salamander, newt”), Old Russian смолжь (smolžʹ, “snail”), Czech mlž (“clam”). Derivation as an abbreviation of Middle English molewarpe, a variation of moldewarpe, moldwerp (“mole”) in Middle English is unexplained and probably unlikely due to the simultaneous occurrence of both words. See mouldwarp.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From moll (from Moll, an archaic nickname for Mary), influenced by the spelling of the word mole (“an internal spy”), and due to /mɒl/ and /məʊl/ merging as [ˈmɔʊɫ] in the Australian accent.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
From French môle or Latin mōles (“mass, heap, rock”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
Calqued from German Mol; spelled as if it had come directly from molecule or Latin moles (the ultimate source of Mol and molecule in any event).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 6Source text
In English since before the 20th century. From French môle f, from Latin mola (“millstone”), because it is a hardened mass.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗moleEnglish (en) · Etymology 7Source text
From Spanish mole, from Classical Nahuatl mōlli (“sauce; stew; something ground”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
No reviewed record in this collection contains “mole.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
No reviewed record in this collection contains “mole.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “mole.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “mole.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.