moss

moss

See also: MOSS, Moss, and möss

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /mɒs/
  • (US) enPR: môs, IPA(key): /mɔs/
  • (cot–caught merger) enPR: mäs, IPA(key): /mɑs/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒs
  • Rhymes: -ɔːs

Etymology 1

From Middle English mos, from Old English mos (“bog, marsh, moss”), from Proto-West Germanic *mos, from Proto-Germanic *musą (“bog, moss”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“moss”).

Cognates

Cognate with North Frisian möösk (“moss”), Saterland Frisian Moas (“moss”), West Frisian moas (“moss”), Alemannic German Mies (“moss”), Dutch mos (“moss; lichen; marsh, swamp”), German and Luxembourgish Moos (“moss”), Low German Moss (“moss”), Danish mos (“moss”), mose (“bog; moor”), Faroese and Icelandic mosi (“moss”), Norwegian Bokmål mose (“moss”), Norwegian Nynorsk mose, Swedish mossa, mosse (“raised bog”); also Latin muscus (“moss”), Bulgarian мъх (mǎh, “moss”), Czech and Polish mech (“moss”), Macedonian мов (mov, “moss”), Russian and Ukrainian мох (mox, “moss”), [1] Serbo-Croatian ма̀ховина, màhovina (“moss”), Slovak mach (“moss”), Slovene mah (“moss; raised bog; marsh; velvet; down, fluff”), Armenian մամուռ (mamuṙ, “moss”). Doublet of mousse.

Noun

moss (countable and uncountable, plural mosses)

  1. Any of various small, green, seedless plants growing on the ground or on the surfaces of trees, stones, etc.; now specifically, a plant of the phylum Bryophyta (formerly division Musci).
    • 1989, Michael Sky, Dancing with the Fire, page 54:
      Another says you should tense your body, look up in the air, and think about cool moss.
    Hypernym: bryophyte
  2. (countable) A kind or species of such plants.
  3. (informal) Any alga, lichen, bryophyte, or other plant of seemingly simple structure.
    Hyponyms: alga, cryptogam, lichen
    Spanish moss
    Irish moss
    club moss
  4. (now chiefly UK regional) A bog; a fen.
    the mosses of the Scottish border
    Loynton Moss
Usage notes
  • The plural form mosses is used when more than one kind of moss (plant) is meant, or more than one bog. The singular moss is used referring to a collection of moss plants of the same kind.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

moss (third-person singular simple present mosses, present participle mossing, simple past and past participle mossed)

  1. (intransitive) To become covered with moss.
    An oak whose boughs were mossed with age.
  2. (transitive) To cover (something) with moss.
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

Named after Randy Moss, American football wide receiver known for making spectacular catches over defenders.

Noun

moss (countable and uncountable, plural mosses)

  1. (American football, slang, countable) A spectacular catch made over 1 or multiple defenders, typically a jump ball.
    Bro, that moss was insane!

Verb

moss (third-person singular simple present mosses, present participle mossing, simple past and past participle mossed)

  1. (American football, slang, transitive, intransitive) To make a spectacular catch over 1 or multiple defenders.
    You just got mossed!

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

moss (third-person singular simple present mosses, present participle mossing, simple past and past participle mossed)

  1. (intransitive, MTE, slang) To relax, chill out.[2]
    Synonym: moss out
    • 2014 August 29, @7oneZ_FuckTDSB, Twitter‎[1]:
      Although I really shouldn't... I feel like cracking this stout and just mossing in the sun with a splif. Shit, maan. Its[sic] relaxation time!

References

  1. ^ http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/vasmer/43590/%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%85
  2. ^ Arti Patel (19 December 2012), “Slang Words: What Are Young People Saying These Days?”, in The Huffington Post Canada

Further reading

  • A New English dictionary on historical principles, Volume 6, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, Sir William Alexander Craigie, Charles Talbut Onions, editors, Clarendon Press, 1908, pages 684-6

Anagrams

Hungarian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From mos +‎ -j.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈmoʃː]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: moss
  • Rhymes: -oʃː

Verb

moss

  1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of mos
    Moss fogat! ― Brush your teeth! (literally, “Wash tooth!”)

Usage notes

Not to be confused with mos (“to wash”).

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