prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2007-03-26 07:43 am

malkin

malkin - n., a woman who is old, untidy, or slatternly; a rabbit; a cat.


Grimalkin is from the last sense, with gray as prefix. Other senses include a mop made of rags and a scarecrow. Diminutive of either Maud or Molly (the dictionaries disagree) by way of Middle English slang for a servant woman.

---L.