the.com/muddy
where dirt and water conspire to swallow your boots and your dignity
means Covered in, full of, or resembling mud; or, of ideas and water alike, cloudy and unclear.
from From Old English 'mudde,' the word for soft wet earth, a cousin of similar terms across the Germanic family (compare Dutch 'modder' and German dialect 'Mott'). The '-y' is the same humble suffix that turns 'rain' into 'rainy' — so 'muddy' is simply 'full of mud,' a word as plain and earthy as the stuff it names. Its figurative use for murky thinking — 'muddy reasoning' — follows the obvious image of stirred-up water you can't see through.
- woodstock legend
- Half a million people danced in it for three days
- life soup
- Earliest cells may have brewed in primordial mud
- medical use
- Mineral mud baths treat arthritis and skin conditions
- blues royalty
- Muddy Waters got his name as a riverbank kid
- trench horror
- WWI mud drowned men and swallowed entire tanks
muddy waters — blues musician born muddy waters (mckinley morganfield) in 1913, revolutionized electric blues
muddy fork — river in north carolina, named for its sediment-heavy appearance
muddy buddies — popular snack mix treat made with chocolate and peanut butter, called 'muddy buddies' in midwest us