mud: [14] The Old English word for ‘mud’ was fen, which now survives only in the sense ‘swamp’. It was replaced in the Middle English period by mud, probably a borrowing from Middle Low German mudde. This goes back ultimately to a prehistoric base *meu-, *mu- that has produced a range of words in the Indo- European languages denoting ‘dirt’ or ‘wet’: Greek múdos ‘damp’, for instance, and Polish muł ‘slime’. Muddle [17] may come from Middle Dutch moddelen ‘make muddy’, a derivative of modde ‘mud’.
mud (n.)
mid-14c., cognate with and probably from Middle Low German mudde, Middle Dutch modde "thick mud," from Proto-Germanic *mud- from PIE *(s)meu-/*mu- [Buck], found in many words denoting "wet" or "dirty" (cognates: Greek mydos "damp, moisture," Old Irish muad "cloud," Polish muł "slime," Sanskrit mutra- "urine," Avestan muthra- "excrement, filth"); related to German Schmutz "dirt," which also is used for "mud" in roads, etc., to avoid dreck, which originally meant "excrement." Welsh mwd is from English. Replaced native fen.
Meaning "lowest or worst of anything" is from 1580s. As a word for "coffee," it is hobo slang from 1925; as a word for "opium" from 1922. To throw or hurl mud "make disgraceful accusations" is from 1762. To say (one's) name is mud and mean "(one) is discredited" is first recorded 1823, from mud in obsolete sense of "a stupid twaddling fellow" (1708). Mud in your eye as a toast recorded from 1912, American English. Mud puppy "salamander" is from 1889, American English; mud bath is from 1798; mud pie is from 1788.
双语例句
1. Dogs love splashing in mud and hippos wallow in it.
狗喜欢在泥水洼里扑腾，河马则喜欢在其中打滚撒欢儿。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I stumbled through mud to a yard strewn with straw.
我跌跌撞撞地趟过泥地来到一个堆满麦秆的场院。
来自柯林斯例句
3. They spent much of their time knee-deep in mud.
他们在齐膝深的泥地里费了好长时间。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The mud is a feeding ground for large numbers of birds.
大批鸟儿来这块泥地觅食。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The salt marshes and mud flats attract large numbers of waterfowl.