Today's Word "Muckle"
Published in Vocabulary
muckle \MEH-kl\ (adverb) - Much, a great many, a large amount; large, great (Scots English).
J. D. Salinger wrote in Catcher in the Rye (1951), Chapter 11, that Jane Gallagher "was sort of muckle-mouthed" because when she talked excitedly "her mouth sort of went in about fifty directions."
The origin of today's word is a prominent root *meg- "great, large" found in some form in almost every Indo-European language. It ended up (also) as "much" in English but we find it in Norwegian and Danish meget "very (much)" and Swedish mycken "much," as well. The ancient Greek cognate is megas "great," borrowed in all the English words on "mega": "megastar," "megaton," "megabyte." It also underlies megalomania "delusions of wealth and power." In Armenian it became mec "great" and in Albanian, madh "great." Sanskrit maha "great" is used in several words borrowed into English, including mahatma as in Mahatma Gandhi, maharishi "great seer," an eminent spiritual teacher, and maha raja "great king," which also includes "raja," a relative of "royal" and French roi "king."
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