maggot

From Middle English magot, magotte, probably Anglo-Norman alteration of maddock (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), 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 his or her brain.

• enPR: măg'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈmæɡət/

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maggot (plural maggots)

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.

3. (obsolete) A whimsy or fancy.

   Mr. Beveridge's Maggot, an old country dance .

   • 1620, John Fletcher, Women Pleased, III.iv.

     Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? / Have not you maggots in your brain?

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     […] 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.'

4. (slang) A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

• (soft legless larva): grub

• mawk
• mawkish