maggot

Etymology

From Middle English magot, magotte, probably Anglo-Norman metathetic alteration of maddock (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Frankish *maþō, from common Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask. The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.

noun

1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
2. (derogatory) A worthless person.
   Drop and give me fifty, maggot.
   "Maggot!" said Catweazle angrily. "Sit thee down!" 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 32
3. (now archaic, regional) A whimsy or fancy.
   Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? / Have not you maggots in your brain? 1620, John Fletcher, Women Pleased, III.iv
   ‘I am ashamed of him! how can he think of humouring you in such maggots!’ 1778, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 100
   […] If you draw, Sir, there's one prospect up the river, by the mills—upon my conscience—but you don't draw?' No answer. 'A little, Sir, maybe? Just for a maggot, I'll wager—like my good lady, Mrs. Toole.' 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
4. (slang) A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

verb

1. (transitive) To rid (an animal) of maggots.
   In the summer I had to get the sheep penned twice a day to maggot them and I needed a good dog. 1950, Frederick Daniel Smith, Barbara Wilcox, Sold for Two Farthings, page 82

adj

1. (colloquial, Australia) Alternative form of maggoted (“drunk; intoxicated”)