6 TALPID^— TALPA 



1792. Talpa EUROP^A CINEREA, Robert Kerr, loc. cit.; based on a cinereous 



variety. 

 1797. Talpa europ^a rufa, J. M. Bechstein, Der Zoologe, i., v.-viii., 13 ; described 



from southern France. 



La Taupe of the French ; der Maulwurf oi the Germans. 



Terminology: — The name "mole," written as molle or mulle, only 

 appears, according to the New English Dictionary, in Middle English, 

 having been borrowed from Middle Dutch mol or molle about 1 398. This 

 would imply an independent derivation from mul, the root of mould, 

 from the Indo-germanic root ntel = to grind, so that mulle meant the 

 "grinder" or "crumbier." But the latter view is only problematic, 

 since there is some evidence to show that " mole " may after all 

 be an English word. Thus, the forms mallan or mullan, which 

 are given as Irish by O'Reilly, can only have been derived from a 

 similar Anglo-saxon form, since the animal itself did not occur in 

 Ireland. 



In any case, the forms mole and moldwarp, though they come from 

 the same original root, and have been confused in usage, are two totally 

 different words. The two parts of the name mold-warp (fnolde = 

 mould, and weorpan = to throw) certainly existed separately in Anglo- 

 saxon, although the compound itself has not been discovered. On the 

 other hand, where the word mold occurs at a later period, it is not 

 necessarily an abbreviation of mold-warp, but may be an independent 

 extension of the form mole. 



An early and unknown translator (about 1420) of Palladius {Hus- 

 bondrie, Early English Text Society, 108, iv., 130) has: — 



" The molde, and other such as diggeth lowe." 



Spenser (1SS3-IS98) uses only mouldwarp, but Shakespeare employs 

 both forms, as in Hamlet, I., v., 162 : — 



"Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the earth so fast ?" 



and again in Henry IV. (III., i., 149) : — 



" He angers me 

 With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant ; " 



so that the abbreviation, or extension, of the word, whichevfer view be 

 taken, was of early date. On the other hand, Topsell (1607) has both 

 mole and want. 



Want, woont, or wunt, which is variously corrupted into oont, hunt, 

 wuntit, etc., is derived, obviously, from Middle English wont = a mole, 

 which stood, undoubtedly, for an older form, wand, and came from the 

 same root as Anglo-saxon windan = to wind. The form wand is 

 found in the most ancient English document in existence, viz., the 



