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mule¹

(myl)

1. The sterile hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, characterized by long ears and a short mane.

2. A sterile hybrid, as between a canary and other birds or between certain plants.

3. Informal A stubborn person.

4. A spinning machine that makes thread or yarn from fibers. Also called spinning mule.

5. A small, usually electric tractor or locomotive used for hauling over short distances.

6. Slang A person who serves as a courier of illegal drugs.

[Middle English, from Old French mul and from Old English mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Italic *mukslos; akin to Albanian mushk and Old Russian mŭskŭ, mule, and dialectal Greek (Phocaea) mukhlos, male donkey, all possibly ultimately of Near Eastern origin.]

mule²

(myl)

A backless slipper or shoe, often with a closed toe.

[Early Modern English, from Middle French, woman's backless slipper, ultimately (possibly via Middle Dutch mule), from Old French *mule, from Medieval Latin mula, a kind of footwear (attested in the plural mul(a)e), alteration of Latin mulleī, ceremonial high-soled half boots of soft red leather worn by patricians, short for mulleī calceī : mulleī, masculine plural of mulleus, reddish (akin to Lithuanian mulvas, reddish, yellowish) + calceī, plural of calceus, shoe, half boot.]

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mule²

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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