musty
Adjective Satellite
- covered with or smelling of mold
- "a moldy (or musty) odor"
- stale and unclean smelling
Adj
- Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.
- Having an odour or taste of mould; also (generally), having a stale or unfresh odour or taste.
- Characteristic of or relating to mould or mouldiness.
- Of attitudes, ideas, writing, or other abstract things: no longer fresh or interesting; outdated, stale.
- Of a person: boring and unadventurous; also, old-fashioned, stuck in the past.
- Bad-tempered, grumpy, irritable.
- Of a male animal such as a camel or an elephant: in musth.
Noun
- A type of snuff with a musty flavour (adjective sense 2).
Verb
- To turn musty (adjective sense 1 or 2); to must.
Adjective
- MUSTIER, MUSTIEST having a stale odor MUSTILY adv
Examples
- "musty food musty furniture a musty odour"
Origin / Etymology
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English musty; further origin uncertain, possibly from one of the following:
* From Anglo-Norman muste, moste, variants of moiste, muiste (“moist”), from Old French moiste (“clammy, damp, moist, wet”) (modern French moite (“muggy; sticky, sweaty”)), from a blend of Vulgar Latin *mucidus (from Latin mūcidus (“mouldy, musty”), from Old Latin mūceō (“to be mouldy or musty”) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’, forming adjectives)) + Latin mustum (“unfermented or partially fermented grape juice, must; new wine”) (from mustus (“fresh; young; unfermented”), from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mews- (“damp; moss”)).
* From another language derived from the above Latin words (compare the cognates below).
* A variant of Middle English mosty, moisti (“damp, humid, wet, moisty; of fruit: moist and juicy”) [and other forms] (perhaps influenced by must (“fruit (usually grape) juice which has been or will be fermented”)), from moist, moiste (“damp, humid; moist, wet; well-irrigated, well-watered; liquid; of ale: new; (figuratively) not withered, fresh; carnal, lascivious; raw, undisciplined”) (from Old French moiste: see above) + -i (suffix forming adjectives).
Compare Middle French moisi (“mouldy”), an adjective use of the past participle of moisir (“(to cause) to go mouldy, to moulder”) (modern French moisir), from Latin mūcēre, the present active infinitive of Old Latin mūceō (“to be mouldy or musty”): see above.
The English word is analysable as must (“mould; mustiness”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives); however, must is thought to be a back-formation from musty.
The noun and verb are derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Catalan mústic, musti (“wilted, withered; gloomy, sad”)
* Galician murcho, mucho (“wilted, withered”)
* Old Occitan moste (Occitan moste, mosti, musti (“damp, wet”) (Gascon))
* Portuguese murcho (“wilted, withered; gloomy, sad”)
* Spanish mustio (“wilted, withered; gloomy, sad”)
Scrabble Score: 10
musty: valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmusty: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
musty: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary