late 14c., "dung, excrement, feces; filth, dirt," from Old French ordure "filth, uncleanliness" (12c.), from ord, ort "filthy, dirty, foul," from Latin horridus "dreadful" (see horrid). Related: Ordurous.

1650s, "covered with scurf," from scruff "dandruff, scurf" (late Old English variant of scurf) + -y (2). The generalized sense of "rough and dirty" is by 1871 ("Mark Twain"). Related: Scruffily; scruffiness.

late 14c., mukken, "to dig in the ground," also "to remove manure;" c. 1400, "to spread manure, cover with muck," from muck (n.) or Old Norse moka (n.). Mucker "one who removes muck from stables" is attested by early 13c. as a surname. Meaning "to make dirty" is from 1832; in the figurative sense, "to make a mess of," it is from 1886; to muck about "mess around" is from 1856. To muck (something) up is by 1896 as "to dirty, soil;" 1922 as "make a mess of." Related: Mucked; mucking.

"to make dirty, as by dragging; to soil (something), trail in the mud or on the ground," c. 1400, drabbelen, perhaps from Low German drabbeln; compare drab. Related: Drabbled; drabbling.

"dirty, gross, greasy and messy," 1968, North American colloquial, perhaps a blend of scummy and fuzzy [Barnhart, OED]. First attested use is in reference to Ratso Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy."

"muddy, covered with clay," from Latin lutosus, from lutum "mud, dirt, mire, clay," from Proto-Italic *luto-, *lustro-, from PIE *l(h)u-to- "dirt," *l(h)u-(s)tro- "dirty place," from root *leu- "dirt; make dirty" (cognates: Greek lythron "gore, clotted blood," lyma "dirty water; moral filth, disgrace," lymax "rubbish, refuse," lyme "maltreatment, damage;" Latin lues "filth;" Old Irish loth "mud, dirt;" Welsh lludedic "muddy, slimy; Albanian lum "slime, mud;" Lithuanian liūtynas "loam pit").

Hence also English lute (n.) as a type of tenacious clay or cement used to stop holes, seal joints, etc. (c. 1400), from Old French lut or Medieval Latin lutum, from the Latin noun. Lute also was a verb in English.

"a pig pen, a sty for pigs," 1590s, from pig (n.1) + sty (n.1). Figurative use for "miserable, dirty hovel" is attested from 1820. An older word was pighouse (late 15c.).

in music, "passage or movement of a light and playful character," 1852, from Italian scherzo, literally "sport, joke," from scherzare "to jest or joke," from a Germanic source (compare Middle High German scherzen "to jump merrily, enjoy oneself," German scherz "sport"), from PIE *(s)ker- (2) "leap, jump about." Especially the lively second or third movement in a multi-movement musical work. Scherzando in musical instruction is the Italian gerund of scherzare.

"that is within, internal," 1590s, from in (adv.). Sense of "holding power" (the in party) first recorded c. 1600; that of "exclusive" (the in-crowd, an in-joke) is from 1907 (in-group); that of "stylish, fashionable" (the in thing) is from 1960.

substituted for the initial sound of a word and reduplicated with it to convey derision (as in "Oedipus schmoedipus" in the punchline of the old joke about the Jewish mother and the psychiatrist), 1929, from the numerous Yiddish words that begin with this sound.