moggy

moggy

English

Alternative forms

• moggie

Etymology

Unknown, but probably originally Mog +‎ -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒɡi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɡi/

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

moggy (plural moggies)

1. (Scotland and Northern England regional, obsolete) Synonym of girl: a female child or young woman.
   • 1648, William Lilly, An Astrologicall Prediction of the Occurrances in England, Part of the Yeers 1648, 1649, 1650, p. 60:

     ...expect not so fair an enemy as Cromwel, nor such fair quarter as now is given thee: Jockey, Jemmy, and Moggy thy she-souldier, must than all to the sword...

   • 1699, Edward Ward, The London Spy, Vol. I, p. 15:

     ...in another Hut, a parcel of Scoth Pedlars and their Moggies,
     Dancing a Highlanders Jig...

2. (Midlands and Northern England regional, derogatory, rare) Synonym of slattern: an unkempt or badly-dressed woman.
   • 1886, Robert Eden George Cole, A Glossary of Words Used in South-west Lincolnshire, s.v. "moggy":

     Moggy, a slattern, dressed out untidily: 'She did look a moggy.'

   • 1980, Automobile Association, Book of British Villages, p. 263:

     At Ickwell Green... the May Queen is accompanied by moggies (raggedly dressed women).

3. (Midlands and Northern England regional, rare) Synonym of scarecrow.
4. (Midlands regional, rare) Synonym of calf.
5. (Britain) A domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.
   • 1911, John William Horsley, I Remember: Memories of a 'Sky Pilot' in the Prison and the Slum, p. 254:

     Cockney slang... ‘moggies’ for cats.

Coordinate terms

• (mongrel cat): mutt (mongrel dog)

Derived terms

• mog

Translations

cat (depreciative slang)

Esperanto: kataĉo German: Katzenvieh n

Ido: katacho Novial: katache

See also

• go moggy

References

• “moggie, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002..
• “moggy” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
• “moggy” in the Collins English Dictionary