musty

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌsti

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English musty; further origin uncertain, possibly from one of the following:^[1]

• 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”) ^[2] (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)^[3] + -i (suffix forming adjectives).^[4]

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.^[5]

The noun^[6] and verb^[7] are derived from the adjective.

musty (comparative mustier, superlative mustiest)

1. Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.

   Synonym: fusty

   • 1532, Thomas More, “The Confutacion of Tyndale’s Aunswere ”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, , London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 649, column 2:

     [W]hẽ his wordes be wel ſifted, men ſhall find little fine flowre in thẽ, but all very muſtie branne, not worthy ſo muche as to fede either horſe or hogges.

   • 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. , London: for William Holme, , published 1600, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, signature D, verso:

     O vve muſt not regard vvhat he ſaies man, a Trout, a ſhallovv foole, he ha's no more braine than a Butterflie, a meer ſtuft ſuit, he looks like a muſtie Bottle, nevv vvickerd, his head's the Corke, light, light.

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters.  (First Quarto), London: Nathaniel Butter, , published 1608, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:

     [W]aſt thou faine poore father, / To houill thee vvith ſvvine and rogues forlorne, / In ſhort and muſtie ſtravv, alack, alack, / Tis vvonder that thy life and vvits at once / Had not concluded all, […]

   • 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter XI, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, , London: T. Maxey for Rich Marriot, , →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 199:

     [H]ave your vvorms vvell ſcovvred and not kept in ſovvre or muſtie moſs; […]

   • , Tho[mas] d’Urfey, The Old Mode & the New, or, Country Miss with Her Furbeloe. A Comedy. , London: Bernard Lintott, and sold by Samuel Clark, , Francis Faucet , and Lucas Stowkey , →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11:

     [C]ome prithee let's be gone out of this ungrateful Air of his old Houſe; a pox on't, I can ſmell the muſty Bed-mats, and Kitchen-dreſſers, above half a Mile before I come to't.

   • 1708, J[ohn] Mortimer, “Of Preserving of Corn”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. , 2nd edition, London: J H for H Mortlock , and J Robinson , →OCLC, book V, page 110:

     [I]n ſcarce and dear Times the Huſbandman hath little to ſell to advance his Stock, and the Buyers are uſually furniſhed vvith muſty bad Corn from Foreign Parts (vvho often buy our Corn vvhen cheap, and ſell it to us again vvhen dear) or from ſuch as vvere ignorant of the vvays of preſerving it.

   • a. 1773 (date written), James Græme, “The Student: A Fragment”, in Poems on Several Occasions, Edinburgh: A Donaldson; for W. Somerville, , published 1773, →OCLC, page 43:

     Undaunted vvas my heart, nor could appal / The muſtieſt volume of the ſtall; / VVhere'er I turn'd, the giant ſpiders fled, / And trembling moths retreated as I read; […]

   • 1796, [Frances Burney], “Modern Ideas of Life”, in Camilla: Or, A Picture of Youth. , volume II, London: T Payne, ; and T Cadell Jun. and W Davies (successors to Mr. Cadell) , →OCLC, book III, page 207:

     And pray, novv, tell me, hovv can it be vvorth one's beſt days, one's gayeſt hours, the very flovver of one's life—all to be ſacrificed to plodding over muſty grammars and lexicons, merely to cut a figure juſt for about tvvo minuts once or tvvice in a year?

   • 1796, Peter Pindar [pseudonym; John Wolcot], “The Lousiad Canto V”, in The Works of Peter Pindar, Esqr. , London: John Walker, , →OCLC, page 10:

     At theſe laſt vvords, forth cravvl'd an ancient Dame, / Sharp-nos'd, half ſtarv'd, and Avarice her name; / […] / Sav'd of the muſtieſt bread the crumbs, and ſees / A dinner in the ſcrapings of a cheeſe: […]

   • 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “In the Dark”, in Our Mutual Friend. , volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1865, →OCLC, book the third (A Long Lane), page 103:

     Bradley assenting, went with him into an early public-house, haunted by unsavoury smells of musty hay and stale straw, […]

   • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter CXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 616:

     It was a thin book bound in faded morocco, with a copper-plate engraving as a frontispiece; the pages were musty with age and stained with mould.

   • 2019 November 13, “Reize – Showdown Character Highlight”, in Yacht Club Games‎, archived from the original on 5 December 2020:

     Reize already has a strong and spirited jump, bounding higher than most every other fighter. That's what happens when you're not weighed down with all that musty, old armor!

2. Having an odour or taste of mould; also (generally), having a stale or unfresh odour or taste.

   Synonym: fusty

   musty food    musty furniture    a musty odour

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     You had muſty vittaile, and he hath holpe to eate it, he is a very valiaunt trencher man, he hath an excellent ſtomacke.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as I was ſmoaking a muſty roome, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand in ſad conference: […]

   • 1604, “The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie: Or, The Walkes in Powles”, in J[ames] O[rchard] H[alliwell], editor, Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages: Edited from Original Manuscripts and Scarce Publications, volume V, London: or the Percy Society by T. Richards, published 1841, →OCLC, page 11:

     Well, I haue almost mard their market, for Gentlemen especially, those that loue to smell sweete, for they are the worst Milliners in a kingdome, and their sutes beare the mustiest perfume of anything breathing, vnlesse it were an Usurers Night-cappe againe: […]

   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue II”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, , London: B Motte , published 1738, →OCLC, page 141:

     'Sbuds! this Veniſon is muſty.

   • 1734, [Alexander] Pope, The Second Satire of the Second Book of Horace Paraphrased, London: L G , →OCLC, page 9, lines 61–66:

     He knovvs to live, vvho keeps the middle ſtate, / And neither leans on this ſide, or on that: / Nor ſtops, for one bad Cork, his Butler's pay, / Svvears, like Albutius, a good Cook avvay; / Nor lets, like Nævius, ev'ry error paſs, / The muſty vvine, foul cloth, or greaſy glaſs.

   • 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “The Narrative of Marian Halcombe, Taken from Her Diary”, in The Woman in White. , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, , published 1860, →OCLC, part I, page 84, column 2:

     I was terribly afraid, from what I had heard of Blackwater Park, of fatiguing antique chairs, and dismal stained glass, and musty, frowzy hangings, and all the barbarous lumber which people born without a sense of comfort accumulate about them, in defiance of all consideration due to the convenience of their friends.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 291:

     So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. […] It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.

   • 1927 January 22, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger”, in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, London: John Murray, , published June 1927 (May 1952 printing), →OCLC, page 268:

     It was a close, musty, ill-ventilated place, since its inmate seldom left it.

3. Characteristic of or relating to mould or mouldiness.
   • 1849, Herman Melville, “He Goes to Supper at the Sign of the Baltimore Clipper”, in Redburn: His First Voyage. , 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, page 172:

     Not knowing what "swipes" might be, I thought I would run the risk and try it; but it proved a miserable beverage, with a musty, sour flavor, as if it had been a decoction of spoiled pickles.

4. (figuratively)
   1. Of attitudes, ideas, writing, or other abstract things: no longer fresh or interesting; outdated, stale.

      Synonym: outmoded

      • 1592, Thomas Nash[e], Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill. ‎, London: [John Charlewood for] Richard Ihones, , →OCLC:

        An antiquarie is an honest man, for he had rather scrape a piece of copper out of the durt, than a crowne out of Plodion's standish. I know manie wise gentlemen of this mustie vocation, […]

      • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 269, column 1:

        [W]hile the graſſe grovves, the Prouerbe is ſomething muſty.

      • 1729 April, [John] Gay, Polly: An Opera. Being the Second Part of The Beggar’s Opera, London: T. Thomson , , →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 51:

        Have done, I beg you, vvith your muſty Reflections: You but interrupt the Examination.

   2. Of a person: boring and unadventurous; also, old-fashioned, stuck in the past.

      Synonym: fogeyish

      • 1637 July, Robert Sanderson, “ Sermon VI. Otelands, July 1637.”, in XXXIV Sermons. , 5th edition, London: for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge, , published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 10, page 81:

        [T]hey ſettle upon their ovvn dregs, and grovv muddy and muſty vvith long eaſe, and their proſperity befooleth them to their ovvn deſtruction.

      • 1712 September 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, September 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 482; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 375:

        [B]eing married to a bookish man, who has no knowledge of the world, she is forced to take their affairs into her own hands, and to spirit him up now and then, that he may not grow musty, and unfit for conversation.

        The spelling has been modernized.

      • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Adventure of the Little Antiquary”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 3 (The Italian Banditti), Philadelphia, Pa.: H C Carey & I Lea, , →OCLC, page 33:

        My friend the doctor was a thorough antiquary: a little rusty, musty old fellow, always groping among ruins.

   3. (archaic except Northern England (northwest)) Bad-tempered, grumpy, irritable.
      • 1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], “What Hapned to Don Quixote with Donna Rodriguez, the Duchesses Waiting-woman; with Other Successes, Worthy to be Written, and had in Eternall Remembrance”, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha. , London: for Edward Blount, →OCLC, part 1, page 30:

        The ill-vvounded Don Quixote vvas exceeding muſty and melancholy, vvith his face bound vp, and ſcarred not by the hand of God, but by the nayles of a Cat (misfortunes annexed to Knight Errantry) ſixe dayes paſt ere hee came abroad: […]

      • 1623 January 5 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Spanish Curat”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iii, page 41, column 1:

        He is monſtrous vexed, and muſty, at my Cheſſe-play; […]

      • 1672, Thomas Shadwell, The Miser: A Comedy, , London: Thomas Collins and John Ford, , →OCLC, Act I, page 1:

        VVhat a devil makes thee in ſo muſty a humour? Thou art as dull and dumpiſh as a fellovv that had been drunk over night vvith Ale, and had done nothing but drunk Coffee, talked Politicks, and read Gazettes all this morning.

      • 1760 January 28 (first performance), [Samuel] Foote, The Minor, a Comedy. , London: J. Coote, ; G Kearsly, ; T Davies, , published 1760, →OCLC, Act II, page 56:

        Here comes the muſty trader, running over vvith remonſtrances. I muſt banter the cit.

• must (“(noun) mould; mustiness; (verb) to become mouldy or musty”)
• mustied (adjective)
• mustily
• mustiness

musty (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A type of snuff with a musty flavour (adjective sense 2).

musty (third-person singular simple present musties, present participle mustying, simple past and past participle mustied)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To turn musty (adjective sense 1 or 2); to must.
   • 1633 November 21 (date licensed; Gregorian calendar), Iames Shirly [i.e., James Shirley], The Gamester. , London: Iohn Norton, for Andrew Crooke, and William Cooke, published 1637, →OCLC, Act II, signature , recto:

     Wi[lding]. But harke thee, harke thee VVill, did'ſt vvinne it? / Ha[zard]. No, but I may looſe it ere I goe to bed. / Doſt think't ſhall muſtie, vvhat's a hundred pound?

From musth (“time during which male elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness”) +‎ -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).^[8]

musty (comparative more musty, superlative most musty)

1. (rare) Of a male animal such as a camel or an elephant: in musth.

• musthy

• mold on Wikipedia.Wikipedia