Lakshmi asks:
What about "Motley" as in Motley crowd? Is this derived from Mot?
No one really knows where the word first meant! It comes from a Middle English word, motteley, but its origin is unknown. It now means "made up of different things," like cloth of several colours. The expression "motley crew" means a group of people from different backgrounds.
In U.S. usage, at least in the last 20 years, the word "motley" is also often used to connote raggedness or shabbiness. (Yes, this is a departure from the standard meaning.) I don't imagine the heavy metal band Motley Crue didn't choose that name to convey its members' diversity.
Posted by: Bill Ackerbauer | October 05, 2005 at 04:19 PM