Muggy

Summer vocabulary installation #1

(from the OED)
Muggy: mug (from Old Icelandic mugga, meaning mist, drizzle; Sweedish mugg, Danish mug, meaning damp; Norwegian mugg, mugge, meaning drizzle and also mould) + y

derived from the Norwegian muggen, meaning damp; early use was moky (meaning cloudy, foggy, hazy) and then mochy (of weather, meaning damp and misty)

definition: of weather, extremely humid; unpleasantly close and warm. Of a place, having a stiffling and oppressive atmosphere; also of a smell.

Quotation: 1902 Daily Chron. 25 Oct. 7/6 Was it [sc. the meat] not slimy, and did it not smell? The Defendant: Oh, it's what we call ‘muggy’ in the trade. That only has to be wiped off, and then it's all right.

What is the proper use of the term "muggy"?
a) It's alright, Martha; after all, the pin is muggy.
b) Julie and her twin, Amanda, were off to a muggy start.
c) No, I don't want a piece of that muggy meat.


The Dickinsonian oracle's rumination on "muggy":

Drab habitation of Whom?
Tabernacle or Tomb -
Or Dome of Worm -
Or Porch of Gnome -
Or some Elf's Catacombe?
(E. Dickinson, 916)