| Definitions | | maggot |
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noun
- A fly larva that eats decompose, decomposing flesh.
- (obsolete) A whimsy or fancy.
- Mr. Beveridge's Maggot, an old country dance http://www.izaak.unh.edu/nhltmd/indexes/dancingmaster/Dance/Play4199.htm.
Translations: - Dutch: made
- French: asticot
- German: Wurm
- Spanish: gusano
Etymology: Middle English magot, magotte, probably an Anglo-Norman alteration of maddock, originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maía (Scots mathe), from common Germanic root - mathon-, from the Proto-Indo-European root
- math-, which was used in insect names. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask. The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in his or her brain.: Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? <br> Have not you maggots in your brain? <br> — w:John Fletcher (playwright), John Fletcher, Women Pleased (1620), III.iv.
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