Dictionary

mouldwarp en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈməʊldwɔːp/ (UK)

Etymology

From Middle English moldewarpe, moldewarp, moldewerp, (also molwarpe, molewarpe), from Old English *moldeweorpe, ("mole"; literally "earth-thrower"; compare Old English wandeweorpe (“mole”)), from Proto-Germanic *muldawurpiz (“earth-thrower, mole”), equivalent to mould + warp. Cognate with Scots malwart, modewarp (“mole”), Dutch molworp (“mole”), Low German mulworp, molworm (“mole”), German Maulwurf (“mole”), Danish muldvarp (“mole”), Swedish mullvad (“mole”), Icelandic moldvarpa (“mole”).

Meanings

1. (archaic, regional) A mole, Talpa europaea.
   • For either they be puffed vp vvith pride, / Or fraught vvith enuie that their galls do ſvvell, / Or they their dayes to ydleneſſe diuide, / Or drovvnded lie in pleaſures vvaſtefull vvell, / In vvhich like Moldvvarps nouſling ſtill they lurke, / Vnmyndfull of chiefe parts of manlineſſe, / And do themſelues for vvant of other vvorke, / Vaine votaries of laeſie loue profeſſe, […] 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D3, verso:
   • as the moldiwarp in Æsop told the fox […], you complain of toys, but I am blind, be quiet […]. 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 1, subsection i:
   • "Yi, an' there's some chaps as does go round like moudiwarps." He thrust his face forward in the blind, snout-like way of a mole, seeming to sniff and peer for direction. 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

Forms