Where does “muckrake” come from?
muckrake (English) comes from English rake, from English rakehell, from English hell, from Middle English helle, from Old English hell, from Proto-West Germanic hallju, from Proto-Germanic haljō, from Proto-Indo-European ḱel- — to cover; to incline.
muckrake (English): A rake for scraping up dung; To search for and...
Definitions
- A rake for scraping up dung; To search for and...
Ancestry of “muckrake”, step by step
muckrake traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English rake
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | rake | A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed... |
| 2 | English | rakehell | Immoral; dissolute; A lewd or wanton person; a... |
| 3 | English | hell | A place or situation of great suffering in life;... |
| 4 | Middle English | helle | Hell the Christian place of damnation |
| 5 | Old English | hell | hell |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | hallju | the netherworld, the underworld, hell |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | haljō | the netherworld, the underworld, hell |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱel- | to cover; to incline |