# moth

Pronunciation: US say "MAWTH" /mɔθ/; UK say "MOTH" /mɒθ/

## Noun

1. A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, mostly active at night, told apart from butterflies chiefly by antennae that are often feathery and lack a clubbed tip.
   - Simple: An insect like a butterfly that usually flies at night and has feelers without a knob at the end.
   - _A large moth landed on the window screen, drawn by the kitchen light._
   - _Moths emerged at dusk and circled the campfire for hours._
2. Anything that gradually and silently consumes, wastes, or eats away at something else.
   - Simple: Something that slowly and quietly eats away at, wastes, or destroys another thing.
   - _Envy can be a moth, consuming a person from the inside over many years._
   - _He called gambling the moth that had wasted his father's fortune._
4. A girlfriend or female romantic partner. *(slang, Ireland)*
   - Simple: A man's girlfriend, the woman he is dating.
   - _He's been seeing the same moth for over a year now._
   - _Back in Dublin, he brought his moth to the pub to meet his friends._

## Verb

3. To hunt for moths, typically by attracting them with lights after dark.
   - Simple: To go looking for moths, often at night with a light.
   - _Naturalists often moth near woodland edges where species are most diverse._
   - _She spent the warm evening mothing along the riverbank._

## Noun

5. A liver spot on the skin, especially an irregular or feather-shaped one. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A small brown mark on the skin, especially one with uneven, feathery edges.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A legume of the species Vigna aconitifolia, native to South Asia and cultivated for its edible seeds.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3** — From Middle English moth, from Old English moþþe ("moth"), from Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic words meaning "moth" or "worm", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "worm". It is related to Dutch mot, German Motte, and Swedish mott.
**Meaning 4** — This is another form of mot, a word for a woman or wife, and it was likely shaped by the Irish word maith, which means "goodness."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/moth (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).