moeg (Afrikaans)

Where does "moeg" come from?

Afrikaans 'moeg', meaning tired, descends from Dutch 'moe', which comes from the older 'moede'[2]. That line leads back to Old Dutch 'muothi', which derives from Proto-West Germanic '*mōþī' and Proto-Germanic '*mōþaz', an adjective formed from a verb meaning to tire[5][3][4]. Dutch 'moe' lost its medial d, and Afrikaans 'moeg' probably arose as a backformation from the inflected forms of 'moe', where a g was restored by analogy with pairs such as 'hoog' and 'hoë'[1]. Dialect forms in Brabantian and Flemish, along with Limburgish 'meug', also show the g and may have reinforced the Afrikaans form[1].

Open questions

• The backformation explanation for Afrikaans 'moeg' is a proposed analysis rather than a settled fact, and the source offers a competing account linking it to Brabantian and Flemish dialect forms derived from 'moeie'. [1]
• The Proto-Germanic adjective '*mōþaz' is itself reconstructed, with its proposed Pre-Germanic source '*méh₃tus' being a further hypothesis. [4]
• The Proto-West Germanic form '*mōþī' is a reconstruction built from the Proto-Germanic adjective with an adjective suffix, not an attested word. [3]

Full etymology tree

• moeg (Afrikaans), 'tired'
  • back-formation moe (Dutch), 'tired, weary'
    • inherited moede (Middle Dutch)
      • inherited muothi (Old Dutch), 'tired'
        • inherited *mōþī (Proto-West Germanic), 'tired'
          • inherited *mōþuz (Proto-Germanic), 'tired, weary'
            • inherited *méh₃tus (Pre-Germanic)

Ancestors

• moe (Dutch)
• *mōþī (Proto-West Germanic)

Cognates and doublets

• meug (Limburgish)

Sources

1. moeg (Afrikaans) - Wiktionary
2. moe (Dutch) - Wiktionary
3. mōþī (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
4. mōþuz (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
5. muothi (Old Dutch) - Wiktionary
6. moede (Dutch) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris