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mule 1 (myl)
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n.
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.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
mule 2 (myl)
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n.
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

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

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.