Mither

Don't be tho mitherable

mither 

mih-thuh (th is voiced, as in ‘these’) 

verb

To bother or pester someone, or fuss or moan about something. 

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Just a super quick one this week, logophiles, as I’ve had rather a busy weekend and haven’t been able to give WOTW the attention it deserves! 

Readers from the north of England will probably find nothing remarkable in the word ‘mither’. But I, being the inveterate southerner that I am, had never heard the word until a colleague used it in an email. Now, it is with all due modesty that I say that I rarely encounter unfamiliar words (or should I say interesting unfamiliar words) in emails from colleagues, and after looking up this little gem I was so excited I thought ‘I’ll have to include that in Word of the Week at some point!’. And so here we are. 

The origins of ‘mither’ are uncertain, apparently. The OED says that it is likely a variant of the word ‘moider’, probably originating from the Irish word ‘modartha’ meaning ‘dark’ or ‘murky’. Another possible etymology is the Welsh word ‘moedro’ meaning ‘to worry or bother’. We may never know!