moss

English Online Dictionary. What means moss‎? What does moss mean?

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moas (“moss”), West Frisian moas (“moss”), Dutch mos (“moss”), German Low German Moss (“moss”), German Moos (which shows the same polysemy of "moss" and "bog, fen"), Danish mos (“moss”), Swedish mossa (“moss”), Icelandic mosi (“moss”), Latin muscus (“moss”), Russian мох (mox, “moss”), Polish mech. 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).

   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

4. (now chiefly UK regional) A bog; a fen.

   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.

2. (transitive) To cover (something) with moss.

Translations

See also

• muscoid

Etymology 2

(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.

References

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

• SMOS, SMOs, soms

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• mossál

Etymology

mos +‎ -j

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmoʃː]
• 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”).