▪ I. † ˈmuggle1 Obs. rare.
Also 3 moggle, 4 mughel.
[Origin unknown.]
An alleged Kentish word for ‘tail’. Hence † ˈmuggling (also moglynge), a tailed man.
| c 1205 Lay. 29588 Þa tailes heom comen on; þer uoren heo maȝen iteled beon. Iscend wes þat mon-cun; muggles [c 1275 moggles] heo hafden and inne hirede ælches men cleopeð heom muglinges [c 1275 moglymges]. c 1450 Bower in Fordun's Scotichron. (1759) I. 139 Vocatur..cauda ab indigenis, patria lingva, Mughel. |
▪ II. † ˈmuggle2
[Origin and meaning obscure.]
| 1607 Middleton Your Five Gallants ii. i, Oh the parting of vs twaine, Hath causde me mickle paine, and I shall nere be married Vntill I see my muggle againe. 1617 T. Young England's Bane E 4 b, I haue seene a company amongst the very Woods and Forests, drinking for a muggle... Sixe haue determined to trie their strengths who could drinke most glasses for the muggle. The first drinkes a glasse of a pint, the second two, the next three [etc]. |
▪ III. muggle3 slang (orig. U.S.).
(ˈmʌg(ə)l)
[Origin unknown.]
pl. Marijuana; sing. or pl., a marijuana cigarette. Also Comb., as muggle-head, -smoker, one who smokes marijuana; so ˈmuggler, a marijuana addict.
| 1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 11/1 Muggle-head, smoker of Mexican loco weed. 1928 L. Armstrong (title of gramophone record) Muggles. 1933 C. de Lenoir Hundredth Man i. 10, I found myself on the Mexican border with a bad ‘yin’, and nothing to relieve me but the native drug marijuana. In New Orleans and other Southern American towns this is known as ‘muggles’, being sold in the form of cigarettes. 1933 Fortune Aug. 90/1 Louis Armstrong, who blew such frenzied tattoos as he has recorded under the titles Mahogany Hall Stomp, Knee Drops, Skip the Gutter, and Muggles (named for the Mexican cigarettes drugged with marijuana which have inspired perfectly incredible solos). 1938 Manch. Guardian Weekly 2 Sept. 188/3 Many swing players are ‘killer-dillers’ (first-rate players). Some are ‘mugglers’ (Marijuana addicts), but very few are ‘long-hairs’ (people who like classical music). 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) 51 ‘Ever smoke any muggles?’ he asked. 1949 R. Chandler Little Sister xxxiv. 248 Desk clerk's a muggle-smoker. 1969 A. Arent Laying on of Hands (1971) vi. 50 Offer our guest a muggle. 1972 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 2 July 14 Detectives from the CIB Drug Squad in Brisbane are becoming quite familiar now with words like muggles, griefs, mezz, Mary Jane, jive, tea, rope and loco⁓weed. |