different between maggot vs maddock

English

Etymology

From Middle English magot, magotte, probably Anglo-Norman alteration of maddock (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Frankish *maþ?, from common 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.

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 his or her brain.

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?g'?t, IPA^(key): /?mæ??t/

Noun

maggot (plural maggots)

1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter. [from 15th c.]
2. (derogatory) A worthless person. [from 17th c.]

   Drop and give me fifty, maggot.

3. (now archaic, regional) A whimsy or fancy. [from 17th c.]
   • 1620, John Fletcher, Women Pleased, III.iv.

     Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? / Have not you maggots in your brain?

   • 1778, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 100:

     ‘I am ashamed of him! how can he think of humouring you in such maggots!’
4. (slang) A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

Synonyms

• (soft legless larva): grub

Derived terms

Related terms

• mawk
• mawkish

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English maddok, from an unrecorded Old English form corresponding to Old Norse maðkr (whence dialectal English mawk, Danish madike, Swedish mask), originally a diminutive of the Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (whence Old English maþa), equivalent to made (“maggot”) +? -ock.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæd?k/

Noun

maddock (plural maddocks)

1. (obsolete) an earthworm, a maggot