Word of the Day

: August 15, 2010

moil

verb MOYL

What It Means

1 : to work hard : drudge

2 : to be in continuous agitation : churn, swirl

moil in Context

"Why should he toil and moil … when … the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him?" (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter)

Did You Know?

"Moil" may mean "to work hard" but its origins are the opposite of hard; it ultimately derives from Latin "mollis," meaning "soft." (Other English derivatives of "mollis" are "emollient," "mollify," and "mollusk.") A more immediate ancestor of "moil" is the Anglo-French verb "moiller," meaning "to make wet, dampen," and one of the early meanings of "moil" in English was "to become wet and muddy." The "work hard" sense of "moil" appears most frequently in the pairing "toil and moil." Both "moil" and "toil" can also be nouns meaning "work." "Moil" implies work that is drudgery and "toil" suggests prolonged and fatiguing labor.